Forget About It
by MyImmortalxo
Summary: All Time Low Fanfic: Lexie has moved to America with her dad & brother to start their life over. There she meets 4 guys who make her life worth living. Lame summary. Better story.
1. Prologue

It's difficult for any teenager who has to change schools. They have to leave behind their old friends and the place where they were comfortable in and enter a strange place completely blind. It's difficult to try and fit in. Friendship groups are already set into stone and they are not very welcoming to any newcomers. They become an outsider. An alien. They will never be truly accepted in the new school and will forever be referred to as 'the new kid'. Old friends will be left behind and new friends will probably not get made. There will always be the kid who shows the newcomer around school and helps them out a little. But after that, they're on their own. Left to fend for themselves and face the horrors of a high school alone without their closest friends to be there for them. Tragedy. It's not easy. Some kids make it work. Some actually manage to fit in and find a group of friends with which they have things in common. But generally, becoming accepted in a new place is difficult, especially for Lexie Brandon.

Lexie was moving schools. Only for her, it was a hundred times worse. She was moving from the comforting place of her school in England, to a completely terrifying school in Baltimore, USA. She was never the most popular person in her school, but she had her circle of close friends and for her that was all she needed. Now she had to leave them all behind and she was moving to another continent. Her dad had got promoted. But the job was in America and after a long family discussion, they all decided to move there. Lexie wasn't happy about it, but she only agreed because her dad was so excited about the promotion.

So, Lexie, her father and her brother Noah moved to Baltimore. Noah was her over-protective older brother, but she loved him a lot. He was 18 and she was 16. They used to argue all the time, it was only expected from a brother and sister with a 2 year age difference, but as they got older they appreciated the fact that they only had each other.

Their mother died when Lexie was 12. Car accident. She was on her way home from work when a reckless driver drove straight into the front of her car. It killed her instantly. Lexie was incredibly close to her mother and it almost tore their family apart when she died. Her father turned to alcohol and her and Noah were left to look after themselves while their father recovered.

Now though, the three of them live in great harmony. In a way, Lexie was happy to move to Baltimore. It was a chance for her to forget all the bad memories and start fresh. But she was terrified. She hated having to leave her friends behind and there wasn't a high chance that they would stay in contact. She also hated changing schools, she wouldn't even have Noah there with her as he had already graduated back in England. She was going there completely alone. She just hoped that for her it was different. She hoped that there was somewhere she could fit in and that there were a group of friends that she could join with. She had hope that life in America would be better and hopefully it would.

It was time to find out. They had been in their new house for the duration of 4 days and today was the day of the first day of her new high school. Saying she was nervous would be an understatement.

* * *

><p><strong>This is just the prologue to the whole story to act as some background information to the main character and her family. All Time Low will appear in the next chapter, I promise<strong>

**Reviews would be much appreciated :)**


	2. Chapter 1: The First Day

**Thanks to the comments I recieved on Twitter for the beginning of this & to all my silent readers who favourited and added alerts etc :) I really appreciate it!**

* * *

><p>Lexie nervously glanced at her reflection in the mirror. She thought she looked decent for her first day of school. She was never really a girly girl, so she went with blue skinny jeans, a Blink-182 shirt and a pair of black converse. Her hair was tied in a braid, pulled to her left side and she kept her make up simple: mascara and eyeliner. Nothing else. Lexie was never one to make a fuss about her appearance, she had her own style and didn't like to follow the crowd. That was one of the reasons she used to get bullied in her old school: she was too much of a 'tomboy' and didn't care for the things other girls cared for. The bullying didn't get to her though, she wasn't going to change who she was for some popular girls at school.<p>

But even so, she was nervous as hell. She was going to be a freak. The new girl with the British accent. She had gone to the mall yesterday with her brother and recieved many giggles from people in the stores when they listened to their conversations. Lexie didn't think her accent was that amusing. It was part of her identity. She was proud of her British roots, but that still didn't get rid of the nerves she was feeling about going to school.

'Lexie! Get your butt downstairs. We've got to go!" Noah called. Her dad had to start work earlier this morning, so Noah was driving her to school. It was a comforting thought for her having her brother take her there. They were incredibly close and she loved him more than anything. He was her best friend.

Lexie grabbed her bag from her bed and dashed downstairs where Noah was waiting by the door with the keys. When he saw that she was ready, he opened the door for her and she made her way outside and got into the car.

The car journey was silent, but not an awkward silence. It was comfortable. The school was about a 10 minute drive from their house, so it was within a decent walking distance, but Noah was fine with driving her to school.

When they pulled up into the school car park, Noah turned his head in her direction.

"Nervous?" he asked.

Lexie nodded, "I don't know anybody, I'm going to be seen as a freak."

"You're not going to look like a freak, I promise. And you will meet people, make friends. Kids change schools all the time, they'll be used to getting new students," he reassured her.

"Not from England," Lexie protested.

Noah chuckled, "No, maybe not. But that doesn't matter. Hey, you might even get quite popular. 'The hot British girl."

Lexie laughed and playfully punched him in the arm. "Whatever, loser." She picked her bag up and opened the car door. Taking a deep breath, she stepped out of the car. Closing the door behind her, she gave a small wave and smile to Noah and walked up to the main entrance.

There were students arriving and walking past Lexie, not even giving her a glance. In a way, that was preferable. She would rather fade into the shadows than be thrusted into the limelight.

She made her way to the office, and handed the receptionist her forms. "Hi, I'm Lexie Brandon. I'm a new student here."

The receptionist, who's name was 'Mrs Garroway' smiled up at her while quickly flicking through her forms. "Are you from England?" she asked.

Lexie nodded and felt a brush creeping up to her cheeks. _God, this was going to get embarassing_, she thought.

Mrs Garroway reached for a file and pulled out some more paperwork. She flicked through it until she came to the part she wanted. She handed Lexie a piece of paper. "This is your class schedule and on the back are some books that you'll need to buy yourself that the school does not provide, as well as a list of places you can go during your break and lunch hour. You'll also need to get this signed," she handed her another piece of paper that had all her classes listed on it, with details about her behavior etc, "by each teacher from each class, to make sure that you have attended and that you are behaving in the correct way. Bring this back to the office at the end of the day. Have a nice day, honey."

Feeling rather bewildered, Lexie wandered away from the school office. According to her schedule, she had English first with Mr Tate in Room 25... wherever that was. Looking at her watch though, she had 10 minutes to figure out where it was because she got there early. Thankfully.

She was just about to try and find a sign somewhere that might tell her where to go, when somebody tapped her on the shoulder. She turned around to see a girl about her age, with long brown hair and striking blue eyes smiling at her. Like Lexie, she didn't seem much of a girly girl either. She was wearing a pair of jean shorts with purple converse and a plain black tank top.

"Hey, you're the new girl right? I heard about you starting here and I saw you walking around a little lost, so I figured it was you! Am I right? My name's Rachel by the way," she said, all very quickly.

"Um, yeah it's me. My name's Lexie," she said nervously.

"I can show you round if you like, I was new here two years ago, I know what you're going through, trust me," she said smiling.

"That would be great, thanks," Lexie replied. Rachel looked at her class schedule then beamed when she announced that they have three of the same lessons today. The first being English. Rachel led Lexie off in the direction of the classroom, telling her a bit about the teacher, Mr Tate. Apparently he was super strict on things like homework being done, but he was fine with talking in lessons. He enfused a seating plan though, and Rachel told her she wasn't quite sure who she would have to sit with.

"So, you're from England, huh? Where abouts?" Rachel asked her as they walked to class.

"I lived in London. We moved over here because my dad got a promotion," Lexie told her.

"That's cool! I've always wanted to visit London. It seems like such an amazing place," Rachel said.

"It's alright. The novelty of it kind of wears off when you've been living there for so long. I'm kind of happy to be in a new place, but at the same time, I'll miss it."

"I know what you mean. I used to live in New York, but we had some uh - family issues and we ended up moving to Baltimore. It's not too bad though, trust me," she said smiling kindly. Lexie was really starting to like Rachel, she was very easy to get along with.

They were approaching the classroom, and Rachel opened the door. Lexie was surprised to see that most of the students were already there. It appeared as though her and Rachel were talking for longer than they thought they were.

Lexie awkwardly walked up to Mr Tate and handed him her class slip. He took it and then looked around the room. "Just go and take a seat next to Alex for today, Lexie. He's the one seated at the back."

Lexie nodded and walked past the staring eyes of the class to go sit with Alex. Alex had brown hair, styled in that perfect 'I just got out of bed' look. His eyes were the most gorgeous brown that Lexie had ever seen and he was dressed quite plainly: a white T-shirt, jeans and a pair of converse. _He's gorgeous_, Lexie thought, then felt herself blushing slightly.

She put her bag under the table and sat their awkwardly, not really knowing what to say.

Alex broke the silence, "Hey, I'm Alex. You the new kid, then?"

"Hi. Yeah. I'm Lexie," she answered.

"Pretty name. Where about in England did you move from?" he asked.

"God, is my accent really that strong?" she asked in horror.

"Not really," he said laughing. "I just know a good British accent when I hear one."

"Oh, well, I'm from London."

"I used to live in England," he told her.

"Really? Where abouts?" she asked in disbelief. She had met somebody who probably understood exactly what she was going through.

"I lived in Essex, I moved when I was about 7," he said.

"Wow. That's cool," Lexie said and Alex just laughed.

Just then, Mr Tate started the class and they were currently studying poetry. Lexie immediately began to pay attention. She loved studying poetry back at her old school and she hoped that it was just as good learning it here.

It was. She even quite liked Mr Tate. He didn't draw a huge amount of attention to her as the new student, just introduced her to the rest of the class. She thought he was a good teacher and she animatedly took notes on everything he was saying.

She often looked to her side and saw that Alex looked more interesting in doodling in his notebook than paying attention. She also noticed that he was writing something completely unrelated to the class, but she couldn't make out what any of it said.

About ten minutes near the end of the lesson, she got slipped a note.

_Do you like Blink-182? - Alex_

**Do you like air?**

She heard him laugh quietly at her comment, then she got passed another note.

_I take that as a yes._

**Why did you want to know?**

_Just wondering. I'm in a band, you see, and one of our big influences is Blink-182._

**You're in a band, really? That's so cool. What're you called?**

She didn't get a response though because then the bell went, signalling end of class. She got her books and things and started to gather them into her bag.

She turned to Alex who had a small smirk on his lips, which Lexie had no idea as to why.

"We're called All Time Low by the way," Alex said as Lexie opened her mouth to speak. "See you around." Lexie watched as Alex walked out of the classroom and frowned to herself. That goodbye seemed... blunt. Still frowning, she went to get her slip from Mr Tate who had given her top marks for everything which cheered her up slightly. She walked out the the door and found Rachel waiting for her.

"I'm not in your next lesson, but I'll walk you there anyway," Rachel said. Lexie had History and Rachel had French.

It became quite silent on their walk, but then Rachel said, "I see you met the famous Alex Gaskarth in English, then."

"Yeah, but why do you say he's famous? Is it because of the band?" Lexie asked.

"Partly, they're actually pretty good. I saw them play a local gig a couple months ago. But that's not what I meant, Alex is a bit of a manwhore and the whole school knows it," Rachel said narrowing her eyes slightly. Did Rachel once date Alex?

"Well, I'm sure I can handle myself," Lexie said smiling.

"Well, be careful anyway," Rachel told her. They had reached a classroom and Rachel said, "This is your class. I'll meet you back here at the end if you want?"

"That would be great, thanks," she replied. Rachel smiled and walked off down the corridor and Lexie walked in by herself. Time for round 2.

* * *

><p>History was fine. Lexie was sat next to a girl called Hayley who was alright at first but then started to become slowly annoying. At breaktime, Lexie hung out with Rachel in the cafeteria and they just chatted about basic school stuff. Then she had Maths, followed by Chemistry. Both of those classes were fine, too. They were the other two classes where Lexie was with Rachel and she was able to sit with her in both of them. She didn't see a sign of Alex all day, she didn't even see him at lunch. She sat with Rachel and a couple of her friends: Mark, Josie and Violet. All three of them seemed great and Lexie had a feeling that Mark kind of had a thing for Rachel, but she didn't say anything.<p>

Her last lesson of the day was gym and Lexie was really not looking forward to it. They were doing Badminton though, which was about the only sport she could play.

She got changed into a pair of track pants and a white tank top, then joined the rest of the class in the gym. She noticed that Violet, one of the girls she sat with at lunch was in this class and went to go and talk to her.

Violet was incredibly clever. And beautiful. Lexie could tell that she took great care with her looks, but not so much that she became known as a slag. She wore just the right amount of make up to make her look her best and even in gym clothes, she still looked stunning. How was that fair? Looking at Violet, Lexie felt slightly self-consious about her own image and squirmed uncomfortably.

* * *

><p>Gym actually went pretty well in Lexie's eyes. She played against Violet and won the majority of the games, though Violet was also really good. The whole time though, Lexie couldn't stop thinking about Alex. She had no idea why, she had barely spoke to the guy. But he spoke with such confidence and he was insanely gorgeous. But Rachel's words kept swimming through her mind. Should she trust him?<p>

But then her own insecurities resurfaced and she started thinking, _Why am I thinking about him anyway? He could have any girl he wants. He won't want anything to do with me. I'm being an idiot._

Little did Lexie know that she was completely wrong. He was thinking about her too and he didn't want any girl. Right now, he wanted her.

* * *

><p><strong>Hi, um, reviews please? It's much appreciated :)<strong>


	3. Chapter 2: The Learning Curve

Lexie was sitting in her bedroom at home doing today's homework when she got a text from Rachel.

**I'm not going to be at school tomorow, we have some family problems at the moment. Hang with Violet or Mark though, they like you :) x - Rachel**

_Okay, do you wanna talk about it? x - Lexie_

**Not at the moment, I'll tell you when I'm in school x - Rachel**

_Kay, see you when you're back at school then. I'm going to bed. Night! x - Lexie_

**Goodnight gorgeous :) x - Rachel**

Lexie got changed into her tank top and shorts and climbed into bed. Her first day at school was not as tragic as she thought it would be. She really liked Rachel and could see them becoming really close. She liked Violet too, though she had to try and pretend that she wasn't incredibly jealous of her. Mark was cool too, though she didn't talk to him as much as Violet. She kind of got the vibe that he had a thing for Rachel though. That made Lexie smile. Rachel was a really nice person, she deserved to have a great guy like him.

Then there was Alex. Lexie didn't really know much about him, other than the fact that he was in a band and had a reputation for being a bit of a 'manwhore'. Hell, she didn't even know what he did in the band. She didn't think he would be the drummer, he didn't have the arms for it... Not that he didn't have nice arms, because she really thought he did. Then Lexie realised that she was gushing over Alex Gaskarth and mentally scolded herself. Sighing, she switched off her lamp and fell asleep almost instantly.

Her morning went the same way as the previous one. Though today she chose to wear her blue playsuit and blue converse with it. She felt a little self concious with her legs being out, but it was supposed to be incredibly warm today, so she figured that jeans weren't the best idea. Her hair was in the same style of braid as yesterday but she added a flower clip into it as well. Lexie stood infront of her mirror, judging her own appearance. She definately looked a lot more girly today but she didn't mind. She generally wasn't a girly girl, but sometimes she liked to wear different sort of things. She then became very concious of the fact that her legs were very pale, but her brother calling her from downstairs distracted her. She quickly picked up her bag and scurried downstairs.

She expected to see Noah waiting with the car keys in hand, but he was in the kitchen flicking through a file.

"Sorry, I can't take you to school today. I have all this paperwork to go through for the house, which dad seems to have just 'forgot' to do," he said bitterly, making air quotations around the word 'forgot.'

"Oh. So has he gone to work already?" she asked disapointed.

"Yeah, sorry chick. I really wish I could take you but I have all this shit to sort out," he said and sighed. "You okay with walking?"

"Yeah, sure. Don't worry about it. It's not that far, I'll just get my iPod," Lexie said then quickly searched for it around the living room.

When she had it, with earbuds in place, she gave Noah a quick kiss on the cheek and headed out of the house. She played 'Always' by Blink 182 and started humming along to the song as she walked to school. When she was on the next block, she could have sworn that she saw Alex going into one of the houses, but quickly shook it off. She was getting a bit too obsessed.

She made it to school with 5 minutes to spare and quickly hurried to her first class which was French. Great. She always struggled with French in her previous school.

She walked into the classroom and saw that most of the students were already here. She awkwardly walked up to the teacher, Ms Heilig, who made her sit in one of the seats at the front. To make things worse, she also made her stand up and do an introduction, as she hadn't had this class before.

Lexie stood up nervously and faced everybody. "Hi, I'm Lexie. I just moved here from London... if you couldn't already tell by my accent," she said and heard a few snickers around the room. Ms Heilig said something else to her but she barely heard because then she noticed who was sitting in this classroom.

Alex. She had never even seen him walk in, which was strange. He was sitting next to a girl with blonde hair, who she didn't know. But he noticed her looking at him and he winked, which caused her to blush.

"Lexie. I told you to sit down," she heard Ms Heilig say, snapping back to reality and sat down in her seat quickly.

French passed rather quickly and Lexie did her best to keep up with everybody else. Though this was the one class in her old school that she could not do. Lexie was, unfortunately just one of those people who could not grasp another language. It really annoyed her too, she was usually an A grade student, but this subject brought her overall year grade down.

Ironically, the next lesson for her was English. The lesson she sat with Alex. She didn't know why she was getting so nervous about it, though. He was just a guy. After French was over, she hurried out of the door to English to avoid any awkward conversation with the other students and she was the first in class. She sat down in her seat and waited for everybody else to arrive.

Alex was one of the last people to walk in and he sat down next to her grinning. He didn't say anything to her though, just sat there smiling to himself. She was about to say something when a teacher who was not Mr Tate walked into the room.

"Sorry to tell you class, but Mr Tate won't be in lesson today. From what I heard, his car was broken into," he said, to which everybody gasped. "Don't worry, everything's fine I think. He just needs to sort things out with the police. He didn't leave anything for you to do though, so you have a free lesson. I'm just here to watch over you all," he said and took a seat at the teachers desk, getting his work out.

The class immediately started buzzing with conversation and Lexie looked to see Alex still grinning.

"Did you have something to do with this?" she asked in disbelief.

"No. I just know the guy who did it," he said still grinning.

"Why did he do it?" she asked confused.

"I don't know, but hey, don't complain. Free lesson, right? You have a whole hour of conversation with moi," Alex replied, amusement dancing in his eyes.

"Lucky me," Lexie muttered.

"So," Alex said leaning closer to her, "Tell me about yourself. In more detail than you did first period, though."

Lexie chuckled slightly with embarassment, then said "What do you want to know?"

"I don't know. Anything. Family life, past schools..." he said trailing off.

"Why do you care?" Lexie questioned.

"I just do. Come on. I'm waiting!" Alex demanded.

"Um, alright then. I live with my dad and my older brother Noah. We used to really hate each other, but now we're practically joined at the hip. He's my best friend, but he's a bit too over protective sometimes," Lexie said, thinking about the time he had found out that she had a boyfriend. He was not happy about that.

"What about your mom?" Alex asked.

Lexie shifted her eyes nervously, "She's, uh, dead. She died when I was 12. Car accident."

Alex looked at her with sadness in his eyes, as if he understood what she was going through. "I'm sorry," he said and took hold of her hand. She glanced down at their joint hands, not sure whether she should let loose from his grip or not.

"It's fine. I just try not to think about it," she said, smiling slightly. "So, what about you?"

He let go of her hand and took a deep breath, "I live with my mom and dad. I've lived in Baltimore since I was about 7, we moved from Essex. But I told you that yesterday."

"No siblings?" Lexie asked and immediately saw him grow uncomfortable with her questions.

"Nope. Only child," he said simply and then the silence between them became awkward.

She quickly changed the subject, "So tell me about your band. What do you do?"

"I'm the lead singer and I also play rhythm guitar," he said, clearly more comfortable with this topic of conversation than the previous one.

"Who else is in your band?" she asked curiously, while gushing inside on the fact that he was the singer. She suddenly really wanted to hear what his singing voice was like.

"Jack Barakat; he plays guitar, Rian Dawson; he plays drums and Zack Merrick; he plays bass," he said, then noticing her clueless expression on the fact that she had never met these people, he added, "I can introduce you to them if you like."

"Yeah, sure. That would be great. Is your band any good?" she inquired.

"We like to think so," he said with a wink. "You should come to band practice later. We're rehearsing at my house tonight."

"That sounds like fun," Lexie said smiling. "What's your address?"

Alex tore a piece of paper from his notebook and jotted down his address on it. Then he paused and also added his mobile number. Lexie took it and slipped it into her pocket then wrote down her number to give to Alex. Even just the thought of him having her number made her kind of nervous. Why was she so drawn in by this guy?

"Rehearsal starts at 3," he told her.

"Okay, I'll have to call my brother and tell him I'll be home late," she said. He nodded smiling and went back to doodling in his notebook.

The conversation turned to silence, but it wasn't awkward, it was comfortable. Lexie became pre-occupied with also doodling in her notebook when the supply teacher called her up from the front. Confused, she got up and went to the front of the class, feeling eyes burning into her back.

"You're the new girl right?" he asked.

"Yes, sir," she replied politely.

"Do you have all the textbooks you need fo this subject?" he asked.

"Um, that depends on what they are," she replied laughing slightly.

He smiled gently and handed her a list with the different books she would be needing. She was missing three of them.

"I'll go get them this weekend, sir. Thank you," she said and went to sit back down next to Alex.

She saw him watching her as she sat down and glanced at him, one eyebrow raised.

"Sorry, I just thought something a bit innapropriate, don't worry about it," he said winking.

"Boys," she sighed. "Is that all that's ever on your mind?"

"Not all the time," he said defensively. "Just when there's a cute girl showing a lot of leg right in front of me."

Lexie felt herself blush and saw Alex watching her as she tried to hide it. He just called her cute.

"Well maybe I'll just start wearing track pants every day then, keep your mind out of the gutter," she teased.

"That wouldn't do anything. I bet your legs look great in anything."

Lexie suddenly felt awkward, "Thanks, I guess."

Alex grinned at her. The bell signalling the end of class rang then and Alex stood up. "See ya later, Lex."

"You too... Lex," she said laughing. It was rather strange realising that they could have the same nickname.

He flashed a grin at her and walked out of the classroom. Lexie suddenly felt ridiculously excited to see their band practice.

* * *

><p><strong>I don't know when I can update next as I'm very busy over the next few days. But please review, or reply to me on Twitter or something like that ~ earthtolauren_x<strong>

**See ya next time!**


	4. Chapter 3: The Beginning

It was the end of the school day and Lexie was getting her things from her locker. School wasn't too bad today and after her conversation with Alex in English, she was excited to see him again. She was insanely curious about what his band was like. Her other lessons passed without any drama and she met a couple new people, who all seemed nice enough except for one girl; Larissa. Larissa was the typical 'popular girl' and Lexie had a feeling that they were going to have a major clash at some point.

She spent lunch with Violet and Mark and she was really beginning to like them. Her new school wasn't as bad as what she was expecting and she was actually beginning to like it. Smiling to herself, Lexie closed her locker and made her way out of school. She checked the piece of paper that Alex gave her with his address and tried to figure out where it was. She decided to call Noah, as he needed to know that she was going to be late home anyway.

He answered almost immediately. "Hey, Lexie, what's up?" he asked.

"I was wondering if you knew this address," she said and read it out to him.

"Oh, sure. It's about a 10 minute walk from our house. You walk straight down the road, take a right, walk until you get to the traffic lights, take a left and it's there," he told her.

"Okay, thank you!" she said.

"Why? Who's house is it?" he asked

"It's a friend's from school. He asked me if I wanna come and hang out after school, so I'll be home later today," she replied.

"Hmm, okay. Be back for 6 o'clock. No later, or I'll assume something's happened to you and you'll be in deep shit, kay?"

Lexie laughed, "Yes. Thanks. Gotta go, see ya later!"

Noah said bye and Lexie put her phone into her pocked and started walking. She realised that it would have made sense to ask for directions from school, so to save getting lost she was going to have to walk all the way home then follow the directions he gave her. She still wasn't used to the area where they lived yet.

It took her fifteen minutes to get home and it was now 2.55. _Oh well,_ she thought, _he'll just have to deal with me being late._ She followed the directions that Noah had given her and sure enough, within just under 10 minutes she was standing outside his house. Now she suddenly became nervous. Were his parents going to be in? Then she figured that they wouldn't be at this time, not if there was going to be loud music playing. They would probably come home later to avoid the noise.

Lexie took a deep breath and walked up the garden and knocked on the front door. Within about 10 seconds, the door opened to reveal Alex standing there. _He's so gorgeous,_ Lexie thought.

"You're late," Alex said.

"I know. I got lost. I haven't even lived here a week yet, cut me some slack," she said folding her arms infront of her for emphasis.

"Well then, let's stop wasting time standing at the door. Get your sweet little butt in here," he said smirking.

Lexie narrowed her eyes at him but stepped over the threshold anyway and Alex closed the door behind her. He made a follow motion with his hand and she trailed after him and then realised that they were going into the basement.

"Did you bring me here to kill me?" Lexie asked.

Alex chuckled, then turned to her with a serious expression. "Yeah. You have a choice though, I can butcher you or burn you."

Lexie gulped. She knew he was joking but the way he was looking at her was rather alarming. "I'd like to see you try, skinny boy."

"Oh, I'm always up for a challenge," Alex replied but carried on walking and led her down the stairs.

"I'm sure you are," she said sceptically.

She realised that they were in the room and she took in her surroundings. There were a set of drums at the back of the room and multiple guitars lying in various places across the room, as well as microphone stands set up. She then noticed three other guys in the room. One of them had black hair with blonde streaks in it and he was ridiculously skinny. The next guy had brown hair and was quite buff, and the third guy was smiling with the whitest teeth Lexie had ever seen. _So this is All Time Low,_ Lexie thought to herself.

"Lexie, this is Jack," Alex said gesturing to the black-blonde haired guy, "he's the guitarist. He's fantastic at guitar, except for when he actually plays."

"Hey!" Jack yelled and picked up a cushion near to him, throwing it at Alex's head but he ducked.

"That's Zack," Alex continued, gesturing to the brown haired buff guy, "and he plays bass."

"Nice to meet you, Zack," Lexie said smiling.

"You too," he replied.

"And the fat one is Rian who plays drums," Alex finished off. Rian flipped him off but smiled at Lexie and she went to go stand by them.

"Be right back guys," Alex said and dashed upstairs.

"Where's he going?" Lexie asked.

"No idea," Rian said. "He probably just has to pee."

"You have the most awesome British accent ever," Jack said in awe. "Say more words!"

"Um, thank you?" Lexie said awkwardly. "What exactly do you want me to say?"

"I don't know, just keep talking about anything," Jack said excitedly.

"Leave the poor girl alone, Jack," Rian said laughing. Jack frowned and Lexie laughed at his expression.

"Okay, okay, I'll stop. But you seriously do have an awesome accent. I wish I was British," Jack said.

"It's not really all that great. The novelty of being in London wears off after living there your whole life," Lexie told him.

Jack didn't appear to be listening, he was looking at her legs. Lexie shifted her legs uncomfortably.

"What?" she asked.

"Dude, your legs are so pale!" Jack exclaimed.

Lexie scoffed, "As if I didn't already know that, genius. We don't tend to get much sun in England, incase you didn't know."

"It's true," Alex said returning to the basement. "The weather is really shitty."

"Are we actually going to practice today?" Zack asked.

"Oh right, yeah. Come on then," Alex said taking hold of his guitar.

Lexie went to the sofa and sat down with her legs crossed on it, watching. This was the moment she was waiting for, to hear what they actually sounded like.

"Okay, this song is called Hit The Lights," Alex said and they began playing.

_I'm sitting here wishing for something that's missing_

_I'm waiting for you to tell me_

_that time keeps on passing_

_I'm hoping, I'm asking_

_to stand by your side_

_at least for tonight_

_let's follow through with this reckless dream_

_that's tearing me up inside_

_and all the time we've been so innocent_

_So don't you go I've got you where I want you_

_and I'm never letting go_

_hit the lights we'll be all right_

_tonight our dreams come true_

_now lets take our chances_

_please give me your answer_

_it's all up to you so please take me away_

_we've waited for so long_

_I can't say it feels wrong to close my eyes_

_when all I see is you_

_let's follow through with this reckless dream_

_it's tearing me up inside_

_and all the time we'll make it seem_

_like we have nothing to hide nothing to hide_

_So don't you go I've got you where I want you_

_and I'm never letting go_

_hit the lights we'll be all right_

_tonight our dreams come true..._

The music they played weaved around the room and the sound of Alex's voice wrapped around her like silk as she listened. Lexie didn't know what she was expecting from them, but it wasn't this. She wasn't dissapointed though. They were fantastic.

They played about 3 more songs then stopped and put their guitars away. Alex came and sat beside her with a bottle of water. "So, what do you think?" he asked.

Jack came and sat on the other side of her, and Rian and Zack sat on the nearest chairs, awaiting her verdict.

"That was absolutely terrible, I think my ears are bleeding," she said in the most serious voice she could.

Alex's face dropped, as did the rest of them. They believed her.

"Well, um, t-that's fine... I guess, I mean -", Alex stuttured. That did it. Lexie started laughing. Not just a light chuckle, but hysterical laughter until her eyes started watering. They all looked at her like she was crazy and when she regained her composure, she spoke.

"Man, none of you get my sense of humour at all, do you? I didn't mean it. I thought you guys were amazing!" she exclaimed and saw Alex's face light up.

"Hey! That wasn't funny!" Jack yelled.

"Yes it was and you know it," Lexie replied grinning.

"Okay, fine, it was funny... do you seriously think we're good?" Jack asked.

"I really do. You guys are going to go far," she replied sincerely.

"Well that's good enough for me," Rian said. "I've got to get home anyway. Nice meeting you Lexie!"

"Yeah, I've got to go too," Zack said. "See you around!"

"Bye guys! It was great meeting you," she said and hugged them both.

She turned around and saw Alex and Jack talking in quick hushed voices to each other. She tilted her head, looking at them and folded her arms.

They didn't notice. She coughed. They looked up.

"Nice to see you didn't forget I was here," Lexie said sarcastically.

"No, we knew. That's the reason we were whispering," Jack said.

Lexie scoffed, "Thanks."

"You're welcome," Jack replied.

"Dude, shut up and go home. Nobody wants your stinky ass round here anymore," Alex said.

"Hey, my ass is not stinky! I showered this morning," Jack cried. Alex just shook his head and laughed.

"I think you smell lovely, Jack," Lexie told him.

"Well at least somebody appreciates my shower gel," Jack said. "I do actually have to go though. See you at school, Lexie... maybe."

"Yeah, see you around," Lexie replied and then she was smothered in a hug.

"Bye, dickhead," he said to Alex and ascended up the stairs.

"I love you too, baby!" Alex yelled back.

Then Lexie became aware that she was left alone with Alex and the silence started to grow awkward.

"What time is it?" Lexie finally said.

"It's nearly 5 o'clock, why?" Alex said.

"I have to be home by 6 or my brother will get pissed off," Lexie told him and sat down next to him.

"Well do you wanna hang here for another hour?" he asked her.

"Sure, do you have any food? I'm hungry," she asked.

"Obviously," he said smirking. "Come on," he said and took hold of her arm, leading her upstairs and into the kitchen.

"What do you wanna eat?" he inquired.

"Surprise me," she said and sat down in one of the chairs. "I'll eat anything."

"Alright, then," he said and gathered some things from the cupboard.

Lexie started humming to herself, then asked "How long have you guys been in a band?"

"Since freshman year. I was in a different band but they kicked me out for reasons that I will not tell you. But me and Jack were best friends and we decided to form a band. Then we met Rian and Zack in school and everything fell into place, like a puzzle... a very easy puzzle, four pieces," he said, rambling slightly.

"I always thought being in a band would be amazing, but I can't actually play an instrument... or sing," Lexie said, dissapointment in her voice.

"It is amazing! I didn't really think I was that great of a singer, but according to the guys I am," he said and then put a plate infront of her. "Peanut butter sandwich. Like it or lump it."

"I luurve peanut butter sandwhiches!" Lexie exclaimed and immediately began eating it.

"Marry me now, woman," Alex said sitting down with his own sandwich.

Lexie laughed, "I'm a bit too young for marriage."

"Dammit," Alex muttered and then they were eating in silence.

Lexie finished her food and sat in silence.

"I should get going," she told him.

Alex nodded and got up, heading for the door. Lexie followed and stepped past him when the door was opened.

"Lexie!" he exclaimed. She turned around and looked at him confused.

"Don't I get a hug?" he said with puppy dog eyes, arms out open. She rolled her eyes and walked back up to him, wrapping her arms around him.

_Oh my god, he gives the best hugs ever_, she thought.

She let go of him and said, "Happy?"

"Very," he said winking.

"Whatever, I'll see you tomorow," she said and began walking again.

"Wait, Lexie!" he yelled again.

"What now?" she asked.

"Do you have anymore outfits like the one you're wearing?" he asked.

"Playsuits? Yeah, I have a few in different styles. Why?"

"Wear another one tomorow, it looks good," he told her winking.

"You're such a pervert!" Lexie cried.

"You love it," Alex said smirking.

Lexie shook her head in exasperation and started walking. "I'll see you tomorow, Alex!" she called over her shoulder.

"See you, beautiful!" he shouted back.

Lexie blushed, glad that he couldn't see. He had just called her beautiful and she felt herself grinning inspite of herself. Today had been a good day.

* * *

><p><strong>I know this chapter was just a lot of talking and stuff, but it was necessary to get introductions and everything out of the way. Reviews please? :)<strong>

**Oh and who's got Dirty Work? I got it on Monday & it's perfect. My favourite's are Heroes and No Idea.**

**See ya next time!**


	5. Chapter 4: The Pizza Date

**My exams are pretty much finished nearly, so I'm going to have more time to write this story. Expect updates more regularly :)**

**This chapter is basically just a filler chapter, nothing **_**that**_** interesting happens, but I just thought it was neccessary.**

**Oh, and could all my silent readers start leaving me reviews? I hate asking, but I really appreciate any feedback you have & I know you're reading it, I get all the alerts and stuff. Thanks :)**

**Also, quick side note: when I describe Lexie's hair as being in a side braid thing, I'm kinda imagining it looking the way Sierra Kusterbeck has her hair... just so we're clear :)**

**Anyway, onwards!**

* * *

><p>Lexie felt herself getting into more of a routine by her third day of school. She was starting to really like living in Baltimore and she felt happy when she woke up in the morning. Stretching, she looked out of her window to assess the weather situation. Sunny. She decided that she was going to walk to school again today, rather than bothering Noah. She knew the way and the weather was nice enough for it.<p>

When Lexie opened up her wardrobe, she grinned to herself. There hung her 2 other playsuits, one black with small white hearts on it and the other was white with multi-coloured hearts. Just to tease Alex, she decided to wear one of them.

Lexie chose to wear the black one, teamed with black pumps and had her hair in her usual braid. Grabbing her bag, she dashed downstairs to find the living room and kitchen empty. Confused, she walked round to see if she could find a note of some sort, but she came up blank. Nothing. She shrugged it off though and grabbed her iPod and set off for school.

* * *

><p>Lexie met Rachel at the entrance to school and they began walking to class together. Maths was first.<p>

"So how was it hanging with All Time Low yesterday?" Rachel asked her.

"How did you know I was with them?" she replied.

"Jack told me. We're good friends, even if he is ridiculously hyper all the time," she said smiling.

"Oh. It was fun, actually. I don't really know what I was expecting them to be like, but they were really good," Lexie told her sincerely.

"Yeah, I think so too. Be careful when it comes to Alex though, seriously. I like you, Lexie and I don't want to see you get screwed over by a guy like him," Rachel said.

Lexie didn't really know what to think of that. "I am being careful, I'm not some silly blonde bimbo," Lexie told her. "Don't worry about me."

Rachel nodded and smiled slightly and led the way into the classroom. Lexie followed and took her seat, thinking about what Rachel had just said to her. Was he really that bad?

* * *

><p>Lexie hadn't really seen Alex all day at school. She spotted him a few times in the corridor in between classes, but she never saw him at lunch, though she saw Jack and Rian and gave them a wave from across the cafeteria. She was dissapointed that she hadn't seen him. She had put on her playsuit just to tease him... and immediately felt silly for doing that. Since when did she let a boy affect the way she dressed?<p>

It wasn't until she was at her locker at the end of the day that she saw him. She had just closed the door having got her belongings out of it, to find him leaning casually against the other lockers, a smile on his face and a twinkle in his eye.

His eyes drifted down to her legs and his smile got wider. "I see you wore one."

"Mmm," she said looking at him in the eye, not really knowing what to say.

"Sorry I haven't seen you all day. I got put in detention for a reason I will not indulge you with," he told her.

"It's fine, Alex," she said and began walking towards the door. She heard him rush to walk with her.

"What are you doing Friday night?" he asked and her heartbeat immediately quickened. Was he asking her out on a date?

"Nothing, as far as I'm aware," she told him as coolly as she could.

"Well, Zack's having a party at his house that night, so I was wondering if you wanted to come?" he asked and Lexie thought he sounded nervous.

She turned to look at him, "Sure, why not. Who else is going?"

"A lot of people. I know that girl Rachel you've been hanging with is going."

"Really? She never said. I'll go with her then, so I'm not walking in on my own like a total loser," she said and Alex laughed.

"Awesome. I'll see you there. Wear something short," he said chuckling and started to walk off in the other direction.

"Where are you going?" she shouted to him as he was getting further down the corridor.

"Detention! It's after school as well!" he shouted back and turned a corner. Lexie shook her head laughing and headed home. It looked like she was going to a party on Friday.

* * *

><p>Lexie arrived home to find the house empty again, but this time there was a note left on the kitchen counter.<p>

_Sorry you were alone this morning, chick, I had to sort some house stuff out. I'm also sorry that you're alone now. I don't know where dad is, but I've got a date ;)_

_I left you some money so you can order a takeout if you want, or there's plenty of food in the fridge. Try not to burn the house down or anything._

_Noah x_

Sighing, Lexie decided to kill some alone time by going on her laptop. Signing into Facebook, she noticed that she had been invited to the event 'Party at Zack's House!' and smiling, she RSVP with a 'Yes, Attending.' Well, she didn't know if she would be allowed to go, but she was assuming. She then updated her status as 'Home alone. Going to enjoy a large pepperoni pizza to myself, while attempting homework. Fun."

Signing out, she got the phone and ordered a pizza. She already felt lonely.

About ten minutes later, there was a knock at the door. It couldn't be here already, could it?

It wasn't her pizza. It was Alex. What the hell?

"How do you know where I live?" she asked him confused, before he had even had a chance to say hello.

"Rian told me," he said.

"How did Rian know where I live?"

"He lives just down the street, he saw you when you first moved in and when you've left for school the past few mornings... that sounds like he's a creeper stalker. He's not, honestly. But I saw your Facebook status and I didn't want you to be lonely, so I thought I'd come and keep you company," he told her all in one breath.

Lexie felt her heart warm instantly. He was actually really sweet. "I believe you on the stalker thing," she said laughing, then opened the door wider. "Welcome to my humble abode."

Alex stepped in and made himself at home on the sofa. "Did you say you were ordering a pizza?"

"Yep. I ordered it about 10 minutes ago, actually. It's a good job you're here actually, otherwise I would have ate it all to myself and gotten really fat," she told him, sitting next to him on the sofa.

"I highly doubt you would get fat after one pizza," he said.

"You don't know my metabolism. It sucks," she told him.

"D'ya wanna watch a movie or something?" he asked.

"Sure, why not. The DVD's are in my room, come on," she said and gestured with her hand for him to follow her upstairs.

She walked into her room and headed straight for the box of DVD's and placed them on her bed. She noticed Alex was just standing by the doorway, eyes scanning round the room.

"Are you going to come in and sit down or just stand there?" she said.

"I was observing your bedroom," he said but sat down with her anyway.

"And your verdict?"

"It's a pretty decent room," he said then began pulling out DVD's at random. "Does it make me gay that I want to watch Finding Nemo?"

Lexie laughed, "Not at all. It's a great movie."

"Excellent. We're watching that, no excuses," he said and put the rest of them back where they were from. Lexie was about to take the DVD and set it up when there was a knock at the door.

"That must be the pizza, don't break anything while I'm gone," she told him sternly and dashed downstairs. She recieved the large pizza, payed the guy and walked back upstairs.

But when she walked into her room, Alex was looking through her drawers and holding a very lacy pair of knickers on the end of his finger, grinning. "This is saucy, Lexie. I didn't think you were the sort of person to wear this," he said and raised an eyebrow. "Nice."

Lexie was mortified. She put the pizza down on her bed and grabbed her underwear from his hand. "Don't touch my stuff, Gaskarth!"

"Hey, I was curious. And you only told me not to break anything, you didn't say I couldn't look through your underwear drawer," he said innocently.

"I didn't think I needed to," she said blushing.

"Do you often wear stuff like that?" he asked her.

"Not that often. I don't really wear fancy underwear for school or anything, but if I go to a party or something then I tend to wear lacier stuff like that," she told him, then realised what she had been saying. "I don't know why I'm telling you about my underwear habits... just forget I ever said that."

"So, does that mean you might possibly be wearing them on Friday?" he asked her biting his lip.

"Maybe," she said blushing even brighter and put the underwear back into her drawer. "Now just shut up and sit down or I'll kick you out."

"As you wish, m'am," he said bowing and layed down on her bed. Lexie put the DVD in and layed next to him, suddenly feeling very exposed and awkward.

The room went silent as the film started, but then Alex broke that silence.

"Lexie?" he asked innocently.

"Yeah?"

He didn't answer immediately and she turned to look at him. He was biting his lip, looking at her.

"What?" she asked him.

"You seriously do have amazing legs," he told her. Gasping in horror, Lexie picked up the nearest pillow and hit him round the head with it.

"Shut up and watch the movie Alex. Leave me and my legs alone," she said to him.

"I'm trying," he said to her, looking her directly in the eye. Lexie felt herself blush and turned her attention to the TV ahead of her. What was this boy doing to her?

* * *

><p><strong>So yeah, this chapter wasn't that interesting. But I have some really good plans for this story and I already know what I'm going to write about in the sequel. Reviews? :)<strong>


	6. Chapter 5: The House Party

Everything for Zack's party was set. Lexie had gotten permission from Noah to go, on the condition that she's back by 1am. Rachel was coming over and they were going to get ready together and she was also staying over that night. The only problem is that Lexie didn't know what to wear. She had dresses, but she thought the ones she owned were perhaps a bit too formal. Rachel informed her that most girls will be wearing dresses, and she had decided on wearing a red strapless dress herself, with matching red heels.

Lexie eventually decided on a simple black dress, with halter straps and it went to about mid-thigh. She was all for wearing her black pumps with it, but Rachel forced her into wearing a pair of heels with it. She compromised though, the heels weren't that big, not as big as Rachels' heels. Eventually, both girls were ready. Lexie had left her hair down, but back-combed it a bit to give it more volume. Looking at her reflection in the mirror, she didn't think she looked half bad.

Noah had offered to drive them both there and they clambered into his car to set off to Zack's house. He had raised an eyebrow at her dress, but didn't actually make a comment on it. Lexie could feel his protective side ready to burst.

It was obvious which house was Zack's when they pulled up onto the street. There was music blaring out of it and various people outside drinking. Noah gave her a bit of a dissaproving look, but he didn't stop her from getting out of the car.

"Be careful," he told her. "And if you come back completely hammered, I will end you, kay?"

Lexie smiled, "Yes. Thanks!"

Noah nodded to her and drove off down the street. Lexie suddenly felt nervous. Sure, she had been to parties before, but never one that was this scale and Alex was going to be here. That thought made her incredibly nervous as well. They had been talking in school when they saw each other but they hadn't hung out since he came round to her house. Lexie also knew that she couldn't go overboard with drinking, she was a bit of a lightweight and she got super tipsy after only a few drinks.

Rachel sensed her nerves and said, "Don't worry about the party, I can handle my drink well, so if you get too drunk, I'll get you home. Just stick with me if you're too nervous."

Lexie nodded, "Thanks Rachel. I don't really know why I'm worrying, I've been to parties before."

"Well, come on then!" she said and pulled on her hand and led her into the house.

The party wasn't as wild as what it looked like from the outside, but it was still pretty crazy. It looked as though some people were already drunk out of their mind and some people were playing beer pong. There was a lot of dancing going on and also a lot of innapropriate touching. Lexie averted her eyes from that particular aspect and followed Rachel to go get a drink.

Lexie decided to just have an alcopop. It might seem lame of her to do that, but she wasn't taking any risks on the drinking factor.

Her and Rachel hung out in the kitchen for a bit chatting when Rachel announced that she had to go to the bathroom and Lexie was left standing by herself. She felt awkward. That was until Zack came up to her.

"Hey, Lexie!" he called. "You made it, I see. Looking good as well, by the way."

"Thank you," she said. "You don't look too bad yourself."

He grinned, "Alex is in the living room if you wanna go see him."

Lexie blushed, "What makes you think I want to see Alex?"

"I can read minds. Go, I know you want to," he said winking. Lexie was about to protest but just sighed and headed for the room. Sure enough, Alex was there with Jack. He must have sensed her approach because he looked up and smiled greatly at her.

"You actually came!" he said as she stood next to them.

"Did you not expect me to?" she asked confused.

"I wasn't too sure, but I'm glad you did. Jack here is getting way too hyper for my liking," he said gesturing to Jack who looked like he was ready to burst with energy.

"I have to pee!" Jack all but yelled and ran out of the room in a hurry.

"That boy is so strange," Lexie muttered.

"He is indeed," Alex agreed. "Aha, you listened to me again!"

"What?" she asked.

"You took my fashion advice again. You wore something short," he said and she felt his eyes scanning her body and suddenly felt self-concious, like she was standing infront of him naked rather than in a dress.

"I actually didn't want to wear this," she told him. "Rachel forced me into it."

"Well I will thank her later," he said winking and Lexie just rolled her eyes.

Jack came running back in the room and shouted, "Lets all play truth or dare!"

Alex looked at her, eyebrows raised in question and she shrugged in response. They both sat on the floor with everybody else in the room, ready to play. Rachel came in as well and sat on the other side of Lexie.

"Who first?" Rachel asked.

Alex immediately spoke, "Lexie, truth or dare?"

She groaned. How did she know that he was going to pick her first? Well she wasn't prepared for any dare that he might make her do, so she said, "Truth."

"How many boyfriends have you had?" he asked her.

Lexie sighed, "I've had one, but we were together for a while."

Alex nodded slowly, then said "So are you a virgin?"

Lexie gasped and smacked him on the head. "You don't get to ask me another question, Gaskarth. I already answered one."

Alex sighed, then said, "Fine."

Jack took the chance to ask Alex and he chose truth. Jack's eyes glinted with mischief. "Lex, who did you lose your virginity to?"

Alex said, "You already know that, Jack."

"Yeah, but everybody else doesn't," he replied innocently and his eyes flickered towards Lexie momentarily.

"Fine. It was with Lisa, happy?"

Jack grinned and turned to Rachel, who chose to do a dare.

"I dare you to make out with Lexie," he said and Lexie's mouth fell open in shock.

"I'm sorry Rachel, I like you and everything, but I am _not _making out with you," she said sternly.

"Same here," Rachel replied with a huff. "Give me a dare that doesn't involve me doing a lesbian act."

"Mm, kay. I dare you to make out with me instead," Jack replied.

Rachel sighed, "Is that the best you can do?"

"Pretty much," Jack answered.

"Fine, I'll do it," Rachel said and got up to go sit by Jack and Lexie watched in surprise. Was she seriously going to do it?

Rachel grabbed hold of Jack's hair and pulled his face to hers roughly. The answer was yes, she was going to do it. But the way she was kissing him did not look enjoyable for Jack and Lexie laughed. She was kissing him rough on purpose so that he wouldn't enjoy it.

After about a minute, Rachel pulled back and smiled devishly. Jack put a hand to his lip and said, "You made my lip bleed!"

Rachel laughed as she went to sit back next to Lexie, "You didn't say I had to kiss nice."

Jack just narrowed his eyes at her while Rachel sat there still grinning.

The truth or dare game went on for a bit longer, which resulted in Alex having to kiss Jack, which was a dare from Lexie, among othe hilarious things that went down.

Then somebody in the group called Harry suggested playing Spin the Bottle and Lexie's heartrate quickened. She didn't want to just start kissing random people.

"Fine, I'll play, but I refuse to kiss Rachel again," Jack said.

Lexie was about to protest against playing but Rachel gave her a look as if to say "You're not going anywhere." They all moved round in the circle so they were sitting boy-girl-boy-girl and Lexie was sitting between Jack and a guy called Thomas.

The game started with Jack, who had to kiss a girl called Maria, but he didn't seem to get injured by kissing her. Then it was Lexie's turn to spint it.

Dreading whatever the result of this would be, she took the bottle and spun it. Her nerves increased as the bottle slowed down and landed on... Alex.

He looked just as surprised as she did and she just sat there looking at him, not knowing if she should actually do it or not.

Jack gave her a nudge, "The point of the game is that you kiss the person it lands on you know."

"Err, right. Yeah," she said and shuffled over to where Alex was sitting.

He was watching her carefully, nervously.

"This doesn't mean anything," she told him.

Alex held his hands up, "I didn't say it had to."

"Good, just so we're clear."

"Oh, just make out already!" Jack yelled.

Lexie looked up into Alex's brown eyes and saw them close as he brought his face closer to hers. He took hold of her face and brought her mouth gently up to his. Their lips met and it was the most amazing feeling in the world. Lexie immediately responded to his touch and opened her mouth up to his and the kiss immediately became more heated in a few seconds. She brought her hands up to twine around his neck and allowed one hand to roam in his hair as his hands slid down to her waist and pulled her body closer to his. It seemed as though time had stopped just for this one kiss. All she could see and feel was Alex and she didn't want it to stop.

She bit on his bottom lip gently and he made a low sound at the bottom of his throat and pulled her even tighter to him, needing to feel her even more, moulding their bodies together and -

A throat clearing from the other sound of the room shocked Lexie so much that she all but jumped out of Alex's arms and blushed a deep red when she realised that everybody in the room had just witnessed that.

Alex looked around the room awkwardly and scratched the back of his head, not really knowing what to say. Everybody was looking at them in astonishment.

It was Jack who spoke, "Dude, I think if I hadn't have cleared my throat you two would probably have started going at it in the middle of the room."

"Shut up, jackass," Alex said coldly. Lexie looked around the room and noticed Rachel staring at her, mouth still hanging open slightly.

Lexie got up slowly, feeling everybody's eyes on her. "I'm uh, gonna go now," she said and scurried out of the room.

She saw Rachel follow after her quickly and she pulled on her arm and into a quiter area of the house so they could talk.

"What the hell was that?" she hissed.

"I don't know! I just kissed him!" she cried.

"Honey, that was not just a kiss. You took spin the bottle to the next level and I agree with Jack: I wouldn't have been surprised if you started taking each others clothes off in there."

"I just got caught up in the heat of the moment!" Lexie said defensively. "It's not like I've got feelings for him or anything."

"Yeah, right," Rachel muttered. "I'm going home. I'll see you on Monday."

"But your things are at my house, don't you wanna stay anymore?" Lexie asked hurt.

"No, sorry. I'm not in the mood for a sleepover right now. And I'll be able to cope without those clothes for a few days," she told her coldly.

Lexie felt hurt, "Alright. I'll, um, bring them to you on Monday."

Rachel nodded and walked out of the door. Lexie sat down in the nearest chair, ready to burst into tears. Why did Rachel hate her so much? Did she have feelings for Alex or used to date him? Lexie knew that she took that kiss too far, but she wasn't lying when she said she got caught up in the heat of the moment. She assumed Alex did too but she wasn't about to ask him about it right now.

Lexie decided to just go home, though she would have to be walking on her own. At midnight. She could ring Noah, she supposed, but she figured he wouldn't want to be woken up at this time to come and pick her up from a party. She leaned back in her chair, closing her eyes. She felt the presence of somebody standing near her and opened her eyes to see Alex, smiling nervously.

"Are you alright?" he asked her.

She just nodded. "Where's Rachel?" he asked.

"Gone home. I don't get why she was all pissed at me though," Lexie said miserably.

"I do," Alex said and sat down on the arm of the chair next to her. "She hates me. My ex-girlfriend Lisa is her cousin and I basically screwed her over, to put it bluntly. She's hated me for it ever since and now she thinks I'm going to do the same to you."

"Oh," Lexie said dumbfounded. "Are you?"

"Am I what?"

"Going to do the same to me?"

"No. I learned from my mistakes with Lisa. I would never do that again. The consequences are too much to handle," he told her.

Lexie smiled, feeling strangely comforted by his words and rested her head on his shoulder. He put his arm round her and pulled her closer to him. "Do you know how you're getting home?" he asked her.

"No," she said. "I was supposed to be going with Rachel but she ditched me."

Alex frowned. "Do you wanna stay at my house? It's just down the street from here."

"I'm not sure that would be a good idea," she told him. "My brother's expecting me home and he'll shout at me if I don't turn up."

"Just message him and tell him what happened. I'm only trying to help you out, Lexie," he said sincerely.

Lexie sighed, "Fine, I'll call him."

She pulled out her phone and called Noah. Unsurprisingly, he didn't answer so she just left a voicemail.

"Noah? Sorry to just call you like this, but I've had an argument with Rachel and she's gone home and I don't want to go home alone so I'm staying at my friend Alex's house. He lives just down the road. I'll be home in the morning, I promise. Bye," she said and hung up

Alex got up and stretched his hand out to her and she took it and they left the party and walked down the street towards his house.

"Will your parents be okay with me staying?" she asked nervously.

"Well they won't find out till the morning, so there's not a lot they can do," he said grinning. Lexie laughed and the rest of their short walk was in silence.

When they got to Alex's house, he showed her to his room and then she stood there awkwardly not knowing what to do. "Where am I going to sleep?"

Alex looked around his room, looking for a suitable place, then frowned. "You can sleep in my bed if you want," he said and then when Lexie opened her mouth to protest he added, "Don't worry, there will be no funny business."

"There better not be," Lexie muttered and Alex laughed. She took her heels off and Alex handed her a T-Shirt and a pair of boxer shorts.

"I figured you didn't want to sleep in that dress, you can put that on," he told her.

Lexie nodded and went into the bathroom to change. The T-Shirt was way too big on her and actually covered the length of the shorts, but Lexie didn't mind. She liked wearing big shirts. Glancing at her reflection in the mirror, she decided to take her make up off. If she didn't, she would be waking up with serious panda eyes.

She walked back into his room and Alex was sitting on his bed.

"Don't laugh at me. I know I look ridiculous in this and I'm not wearing make up. But if you laugh, I will kill you," she said and sat next to him on his bed.

Alex looked at her, furrowing his eyebrows, "Who said I was going to laugh? You always look beautiful, with or without make-up."

Lexie felt herself blush and found herself lost for words. Alex apparently didn't know what to say either, so he just got under the covers and Lexie did the same. This was incredibly strange for her to be doing this, but it wasn't uncomfortable either.

"Night, Lexie," he whispered as he switched the light off.

"Goodnight, Alex," she whispered back in the darkness. Turning onto her side, she was asleep within seconds.


	7. Chapter 6: The Morning After

When Lexie woke up the next morning, she felt disorientated and confused. Then she heard slow steady breathing from next to her and turned her head to see a sleeping Alex. Everything from the night before came rushing back into her memory and she internally groaned thinking about having to talk to Rachel again after all that had happened. It wasn't going to be fun.

Lexie looked at Alex as he was sleeping. His hair was all messed up at the back and his mouth was hanging slightly open as he breathed slowly. He looked innocent. Peaceful. That was a complete contrast to what he was like when he was awake; he was most definately not innocent.

Lexie thought about their kiss the night before. In honesty, she did not want her first kiss with Alex to be the result of spin the bottle and with everybody watching, but it had passion. Kissing him was a feeling she had never had before, she felt alive. It had got a bit more heated too, which she had not expected to feel and she was incredibly embarassed about that. She wasn't really sure where her and Alex stood now. Were they still friends? She was fully aware that it was only just a kiss, but did he want more? At the moment, Lexie wasn't sure what she wanted. All she knew is that she enjoyed it. A lot.

A groan from Alex beside her shook her out of her thoughts and she looked at him as he started to stretch his arms.

"Morning," he said while yawning.

"Good morning," she answered and he smiled, laying on his side to face her. She copied him.

"Nice bed hair," he said smirking. Lexie immediately felt her hair and discovered that it felt like a birds nest. She tried to pat it down, but her hair wasn't having any of it. She gave up with a sigh. Alex just laughed at her pitiful attempts to tame her hair.

"What time is it?" she asked.

Alex turned over to pull his phone from the bedside table. "It's nearly 11am."

Lexie sighed, "I should get ready to go home. My brother will kill me if I'm home too late."

Alex frowned but nodded anyway and sat up. He stretched his arms out again and then remained seated on his bed, twirling his hair with a vacant look on his face.

Lexie looked at him a bit confused, but got up anyway. It then occured to her that she didn't even have anything to change into. All she had was her dress from last night and she didn't really fancy wearing that home.

She turned round to Alex who was still staring into space. "Uh, Alex?" she said.

He looked at her startled, "What?"

"What are you doing?"

"Oh, sorry. Daydreaming. 'Sup?"

"I have a problem," she said. "I have no clothes to change into or anything."

"Oh," he said, as if that thought never occured to him either. "You can just borrow something of mine. I know it will be a bit big on you, but it will have to do."

"Actually, I'm not sure about that. You are pretty skinny," she said grinning.

"You're just jealous that you can't be this skinny," he teased.

"Are you calling me fat?" she asked in mock horror.

"Yes. Don't let your fat arse stretch my pants," he said while getting up to go through his drawers.

"Just for that comment, I will."

"Well then I'll just have to get my revenge on you, won't I?" he said, throwing a pair of grey jogging bottoms at her face.

"Oh really? How are you going to do that?"

"Ah, I cannot divulge my secrets. It wouldn't be a surprise then, would it?" he said and then threw a Blink-182 shirt at her face as well.

She shook her head laughing, then stood up, "Where's your bathroom?"

"Dammit. I was hoping you'd just get changed in here," he said winking.

"Not a chance, Gaskarth," he replied.

"Second door on the left," he told her.

She began walking out of the door, then paused, "Can I borrow your hairbrush as well, please? I don't want to go out in public with this birdsnest."

He chuckled and threw his hairbrush at her as well. Luckily she caught it, as it was flying towards her face. She found the bathroom and quickly stripped off from Alex's T-Shirt and boxers and put the other shirt and bottoms on. The bottoms were a little bit long on her and the shirt was a bit baggy, but it would have to do. She quickly brushed through her hair, but it wasn't really improving it in any way. Sighing, she pulled her hair up into a bun and walked back into Alex's room, where he was back to laying on his bed.

"I'll bring your clothes back to you on Monday," she told him. "And don't worry, I'll wash them."

"Good, I don't want you stinking them out."

"Oh, you're so funny," she said and picked up her dress and heels, then realising that she didn't have any suitable shoes. She walked to the window to check the weather. It was sunny this morning. She decided she would just walk home barefoot, she had done it before.

Alex had looked down at her bare feet questionly, but didn't say anything.

"Are your parents up yet?" she asked him.

He shrugged, "Probably not. I haven't heard them."

"Are you going to tell them that I stayed over?"

He smiled slowly, "Probably not."

Lexie laughed, then said, "Well thanks for helping me out, Alex. I'll see you Monday, I guess."

She wasn't sure whether she should stay to hug him or anything, so she awkwardly began to shuffle out of his room.

"Wait, do you wanna come to band practice tomorow?" he asked and she heard him get up and walk towards her.

She turned round, "Sure, I can bring you your clothes back then," she said grinning.

"We're practicing at Rian's house tomorow, from 1 o'clock. I'll come pick you up," he told her.

"You drive?" she asked.

"Well... no. By 'pick you up', I meant, I'll come to your house and walk with you there."

She laughed, "Well alright then. See you tomorow."

Alex stuck his arms out for a hug and she obliged, wrapping her arms around his skinny frame. When she pulled back, Alex looked into her eyes and then kissed her cheek. He didn't move, his lips just ghosted over her skin, his breath fanning over her face. Lexie felt her pulse quicken at how close he was to her and found herself desperately wanting him to kiss her lips, her neck, all over.

It didn't happen. Alex pulled away from her, cleared his throat and said, "See you tomorow, Lexie."

She nodded mutely and made her way downstairs and out of Alex's house. What was that all about?

* * *

><p><strong>Sorry this chapter was kinda short and un-interesting. <strong>

**I just kinda got stuck on how to continue this story the way I'm wanting it to go. Next chapter will be better, I promise ;)**

**Reviews?**


	8. Chapter 7: The Discovery

Noah was not happy when Lexie returned home and she had to endure a bit of a lecture, but she kept quiet. She told him that she slept on Alex's sofa - she figured he would be even angrier if he found out they slept in the same bed. To try and make it up to him, she spent most of her Saturday cleaning the house. Her dad was completely unaware to the fact that she stayed at Alex's the night before. She hadn't really seen much of her dad lately, he had been more distant and that kind of worried her. The last time he started acting like this was when he started drinking after her mother died.

When she tried asking him about how work had been lately, he simply said 'Fine. It's paying the bills,' and then he went upstairs to his study. She was going to have to talk to Noah about this, she decided. She might have just been making a big deal out of nothing, but surely he's noticed something too?

Noah came home about 6 o'clock and brought with him Chinese food for dinner. It was just them in tonight. Her dad was going out with some new friends from work. Lexie frowned when he told her that, they usually always spend Saturday night's together. It was a bit of a family tradition.

Noah raised an eyebrow at the perfectly clean kitchen, but did not comment on it. They ate dinner in relative silence, but then Lexie decided to ask him.

"Have you noticed anything strange about dad lately?" she said quietly.

He lowered his fork and rested it back on his plate. "I have, actually. It's starting the same as last time."

Lexie nodded, "But why? What reason has he got for doing it this time?"

"I don't know, chick. But we don't know if he's started drinking again for certain. Just give it some time."

"And if he has started again?"

Noah frowned slightly, "Then we do what we did before. We try get him sobered up, but that will most likely result in another move."

"I don't want to move!" Lexie exclaimed. She was just beginning to get settled in, she liked her school... and the people she had met.

"I didn't say we had to. Let's just see how things pan out, okay? Stop stressing about it for now," he said and ruffled her hair. Lexie nodded and continued eating, silently praying that her dad wasn't making the same mistakes as before.

* * *

><p>Lexie woke up late on Sunday. 12 o'clock to be precise. At first she was surprised that she had managed to sleep that long, then she remembered that she was supposed to be going to All Time Low's band practise at 1 and then she immediately shot out of bed to get ready.<p>

She quickly showered and put on a pair of blue skinny jeans, a Green Day shirt and her black vans. Realising that she didn't have time to straighten her hair, she just dried it and put it into a loose bun. After quickly doing her make up, she went downstairs just in time as Alex knocked on the front door.

She grabbed her phone and keys off the side, hastily shoved them in her pocket and answered the door.

"You ready?" he asked.

"Yep," she said and began to walk out, then stopped. "Wait, no. One minute!"

She ran back upstairs to her room and grabbed Alex's clothes from her floor that she borrowed. Stuffing them into a bag, she dashed back downstairs to where Alex was leaning against the doorframe, waiting.

"I forgot your clothes," she told him as she handed him the bag and he laughed.

"Well, thank you," he said as she shut the door behind her and they began walking to Rian's house, which Alex pointed out, was literally just down the street from her house.

"Was your dad mad when you got home yesterday?" he asked her.

She frowned, "No, he didn't know I was at yours. I don't even think he knew I had slept out to be honest. Or the fact that I was obviously wearing clothes that weren't mine."

Alex looked at her, confusion written on his face, "How could he not notice?"

"I don't know, he's been really distant lately. It's starting out just like last time..." she muttered, trailing off.

"Last time?"

"After my mum died, he started drinking. I don't really want to go into too much detail on what happened with that, but then he realised what he was doing to himself and checked himself into rehab. Things got better then and he got promoted to a job in Baltimore. But we've barely been here a week and he's starting to go distant again. Just like last time..." she whispered, feeling tears start to brim in her eyes. She quickly wiped her eyes of any evidence, and added, "Sorry, you probably don't want to be depressed with my life story right now."

Alex stopped walking and pulled her towards him so that their bodies were almost touching. He reached up with one hand and softly stroked her cheek. "You're not depressing me. You can talk to me about anything, okay? I want you to know that. I'll be here whenever you need to talk to someone, I'm here for you, as corny as that sounds," he said smiling and Lexie nodded, laughing shakily. "I understand what you're going through, I've sorta been through it too," he said then immediately removed his hand from her face and started to continue walking again.

Lexie quickly rushed to catch up with him, "What do you mean you've been through it?"

"Nothing. Forget I ever said that, okay?" he said rather aggresively, shoving his hands into his pockets. Lexie nodded solemly and the rest of their short walk was spent in silence.

* * *

><p>"Lexieeeee!" Jack yelled as she walked into Rian's house with Alex. She was immediately smothered in a tight hug.<p>

"Can't. Breathe," she choked out and Jack let go, still grinning like a 5 year old.

He looked over at Alex and said, "Why do you have a bag of clothes with you?"

Alex looked uncomfortable, "Lexie borrowed them Saturday morning and she gave me them back today."

Jack raised his eyebrow and smiled suggestively, "Lexie stayed over, did she?"

"Yes, but nothing happened, Jack," Lexie told him and he immediately looked dissapointed.

"Well, how are the happy couple anyway?" Jack asked.

"We're not a couple, Jack," Alex snapped and walked off to the basement where they rehearsed.

"Somebody's on their man period," Jack muttered and followed Alex.

Lexie followed Jack and felt more awkward by the minute. Why did Alex snap like that when Jack asked about them being a couple? Was the idea really that repulsive to him?

She gave her greetings to Rian and Zack and sat down on the sofa to watch their band rehearsal. Alex kept looking at her throughout their rehearsal, but his expression was unreadable. She wasn't sure what he was trying to convey with his expressions, but it wasn't working, whatever it was.

She enjoyed watching them play again, she was really getting into their music. Jack was incredibly hyper though, even when they were restricted to a small area to play in. She tried to imagine them playing big arena shows and smiled. Jack would definately have more room to be crazy on a huge stage. It could happen for them. They could make the big time, Lexie really believed that.

After they finished playing, Alex went to go help Rian get some snacks from upstairs, leaving her with Jack and Zack. She took that opportunity to ask them about Alex.

"Hey, guys," she said quietly, so Alex would have less chance of hearing her. They looked at her, waiting for her to continue. "I don't really know how to phrase this, but has something happened to Alex's family? Like, I don't know, involving alcohol or something? I was talking to him about my dad and everything that happened when my mum died and said that he understands what I'm going through... but then he's been snappy at me since. I don't understand."

Jack and Zack exchanged a glance, looking uncomfortable.

"I don't really know if it's our place to say," Zack said.

"I think she deserves to know," Jack said calmly, showing no hint of sarcasm or a sign that he was joking about something, which is what Lexie would have expected from him. "I mean, she's gotten close to Alex since she moved here..."

Zack sighed, "Alright. But if you want to know more, you'll have to talk to him about it."

Lexie nodded for him to continue. "Alex's brother killed himself. I think he was about 12 when he did it. Alex doesn't talk about it much, but he said that Daniel was drinking a lot before it happened. He was depressed and alcohol only made him worse. His parents were devestated obviously, as was he. The annivesary of his death is this week I think, which might be why he's been a bit more sensitive about the alcohol thing... we do everything we can to help him when it's that time of year, but he does get pretty bad."

Lexie was astounded. He had a brother that committed suicide. "He told me he was an only child," she breathed.

Jack nodded, "That's what he tells everybody. It's easier saying that than having to relive the trauma of his brother's death."

"I can't believe it," she whispered. "Should I talk to him about it?"

"If you think you can help," Zack said.

"Well, I understand what he's gone through... kinda," she said.

Zack nodded, obviously not wanting to ask her about it. Jack was about to say something else when Alex and Rian came back down the stairs with drinks and snacks in hand.

They spent the rest of the afternoon snacking and watching movies. Lexie noticed Alex looked a little distant the whole time and Lexie knew why. She understood and she too, could not stop thinking about what she had learned today. She decided that she would talk to him, she could empathise with him the most and if he needed her, she would be there. Always.


	9. Chapter 8: The Breakdown

Rachel was talking to Lexie as normal on Monday. She gave her back her clothes that she left at her house and Rachel didn't even bring up Friday night's party. Lexie didn't either, if Rachel was being nice again, she didn't want to bring anything up that would change that.

Lexie discovered that she had a couple of classes with Jack, Rian and Zack as well, but she had never really noticed them before. She ended up sat next to Jack in Maths and was surprised that he was actually really good at it. She talked to Alex when she saw him throughout the corridors, but she sensed that he was putting on a fake smile, like he was hurting on the inside.

She queried this to Rian, who said it was the anniversary of Daniel's death tomorow and that he won't be in school either. She made a decision to go and see him. She was debating on whether to skip school altogether, but she figured Noah would not be very happy if she did that. She would go to his house straight after school.

* * *

><p>Rian was right. Alex wasn't in school on Tuesday.<p>

So after school, Lexie made her way to Alex's house. She was nervous. She assumed his parents were going to be there, but would they let her in? They might not even want anybody bothering them at a time like this.

Taking a deep breath, she knocked on the front door. She heard footsteps from inside the house and the door opened revealing a woman standing there.

"Hi, you must be Mrs Gaskarth?" Lexie asked nervously.

"Yes, but you can call me Isobel, sweetie. I take it you're here to see Alex? Because I don't think it's the best time right now," Isobel told her.

"I know, but I really need to talk to him. The guys told me about what happened and the signifigance of what today is..." she said, pausing when she saw Isobel's surprised expression. "And see, I've kind of been through the same thing and I'd like to talk to him about it. I think I could help him."

Isobel looked thoughtful for a few seconds, then her eyes lit up, "Are you Lexie?" she asked.

A bit astounded with the change of subject, she just nodded.

Isobel smiled, "You can go see him. He's in his room."

"Th-thank you," Lexie stuttered. She wasn't quite sure that his parents would allow her to see him. How did Isobel know who she was? Had Alex been talking about her?

Lexie walked upstairs nervously and paused outside Alex's door. She knocked on his bedroom door, but he didn't answer.

"Alex?" she called. No answer.

She opened his door and walked into his room. Alex was sitting on the floor at the end of his bed, knees pulled to his chest, resting his head on them. Surrounding him was lots of crumpled up paper and multiple pens scattered about the floor.

"Alex?" she whispered again. He looked up at her, but made no other move.

She slowly walked towards him and sat on her knees beside him. She reached out with her hand and softly pushed his hair out of his eyes. He fixed his gaze with hers and Lexie could practically feel her heart shatter. His eyes were filled with so much sadness and despair, and she felt her own eyes well up with tears just by the look that he was giving her.

"What's all the paper for?" she asked him quietly. He just motioned with his head to the nearest scrap of paper, which she assumed was an indication for her to read it. She opened up the crumpled piece of paper and saw that he had been writing. He had been writing a song.

_Make it a sweet, sweet goodbye -_

_it could be for the last time and it's not right._

_"Don't let yourself get in over your head," he said._

_Alone and far from home we'll find you..._

_Dead - Like a candle you burned out;_

_spill the wax over the spaces left in place of angry words._

_Scream - To be heard, like you needed any more attention;_

_throw the bottle, break the door, and disappear._

_Sing me to sleep, I'll see you in my dreams,_

_waiting to say, "I miss you. I'm so sorry."_

There was a lot of scribbles all over it and multiple crossed out words.

"I can't get it right," he muttered. His voice was quiet and rather croaky. "I've been trying to write it for so long, but no matter what I do, it doesn't sound right. I can't get the right words."

"It's beautiful, Alex," she whispered.

"Why did he do it? After all these years, I still can't fully understand his motives behind it. Did he really feel like he had no other option? He was my big brother and he left me. He fucking left me, and I don't know what to do," Alex said and he started crying. Tears were rolling down his cheek and he put his head in his hands and she could hear his quiet sobs.

Feeling rather helpless, Lexie shifted closer to him and wrapped her arms around him, pulling him close. At first he made no response to move, but then he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her against him even tigher and sobbed quietly into her chest.

She gently ran her fingers through his hair, soothing him as he cried out all his frustrations. She was surprised with his breakdown. He always seemed like the type of person to keep all their emotions held tightly together. But maybe that was the problem. He had held all this in for so long and he needed somebody to just hold him, while he let it all out.

She held him for a long time, until he let go of her and sat back, leaning against the end of his bed but he kept hold of her hand.

"I understand what you're going through, you know," she told him. Alex looked at her, waiting for her to continue.

"When my mum died, my dad started drinking. You already know most of this, but it was devestating for us. Me and Noah were left to fend for ourselves and he was only 14 at the time, I was 12. It was difficult, but my dad sobered up and we moved away. It was a long process though, but we made it through."

There was a long silence before Alex spoke, "When Daniel... you know, it almost tore my family apart. Now, he wasn't my mom's biological son, but she loved him all the same. I did too. He was my big brother, I looked up to him. So much. He was my idol when I was growing up... but then I think he couldn't have really been all that great. He took the easy way out of life, instead of battling through his problems. I shouldn't look up to a person like that, no matter who they are."

"Alex," she breathed. "You don't mean that."

Alex sighed, "I do. I hate him for what he did, I don't understand why he felt that was the only way out. He could have talked to somebody about it."

"I don't think we'll ever understand some peoples motives. Especially Daniel's. But do you think he would want you to sit in your room all day, crying?"

Alex opened and closed his mouth a few times, before saying, "I haven't just been sat here crying. I've been trying to write that damn song," he said, gesturing to all the paper. "Music is the best way I can express myself and I'm struggling to even do that."

"You just need more inspiration for the song. What you've written is beautiful, Alex. Just... this is going to sound corny, but if you just search inside yourself, you'll find the words you're looking for. The song will write itself in the end."

Alex nodded but didn't say anything.

"Believe in yourself, Alex. You will make it through this. I know how it feels, I get this way when it's the anniversary of my mother's death. But you can't beat yourself up about it. I went through the stage where you blame yourself for it. I convinced myself that it was my fault my mum died. The reason she was driving at that time was because I had snuck out of the house to go see my best friend," she said and Alex looked at her, with shock evident in his eyes.

"She found out, obviously and she came to pick me up. She was nearly at the house when she had the accident. A reckless driver drove straight into the front of her car and it killed her instantly. I kept thinking over and over, 'If I hadn't had gone out, she would never have died, she would have been safe at home... and alive.' But I then realised that I couldn't keep beating myself up about it, because it's our actions that set things in motion and there was nothing that I could do about it."

"Why are you telling me all this?" Alex whispered.

"Because I want to help you through this. I know what it's like to loose a loved one but you can't pin the blame on yourself or on anybody. There's no going back, all you can do is move forward."

"Why are you so smart?" Alex said laughing slightly.

Lexie smiled, "I'm not, really. I'm just maybe a bit too mature for my age."

"You're telling me," Alex said. "How did you get through all that when you were 12?"

"Because I had my brother there to help me. It took me some time to get to this level that I'm at now, but I got there eventually. It was actually because of what happened to my mother, that me and Noah are so close. We relied heavily on each other during those times, my dad was no help. But we made it and we're as tight as ever, which is funny because we used to hate each other."

"I get what you're saying, but I just don't know how I can get over it, myself," he said.

"Talk to your parents, your friends. You have so many people around you that care, Alex. I'm here to talk if you want me to. I'm here to listen," she said softly.

Alex's eyes were welling up with tears again but he quickly wiped them away with his hand.

"Don't keep your emotions bottled up," she continued. "And use your music as a way of letting out your feelings. Finish that song, write the music to it. You'll be glad that you did."

"You're amazing, Lexie," he said.

Lexie laughed nervously, "I'm really not, trust me."

"You are to me. I don't really know what to say, but thank you. Thank you for talking to me about this. Nobody else really understood..." he said trailing off.

"You're welcome. As I said, if you need anyone to talk to about this, I'll be here," she told him sincerely.

Alex smiled and locked eyes with her. His eyes were calculating and decisive. He reached up with one hand and stroked her cheek and Lexie felt her heart rate quicken up. He placed both his hands on either side of her face and leaned forward to press his lips to hers.

It was a very sweet, light kiss and she could taste the tears on his mouth. She kissed him back just as softly and their lips moulded together and moved in sweet harmony. It didn't get too heated or passionate; just stayed sweet and innocent.

Alex pulled back and whispered, "_That_ should have been our first kiss."

Lexie nodded, "Better late than never."

She could feel Alex smile against her mouth. "True," he said and kissed her again. This was bliss.

* * *

><p><strong>Thanks for reading! I'm not too sure whether I like this chapter or not... but let me know what you think anyway.<strong>

**Until next time! xo**


	10. Chapter 9: The Development

The next day at school, Alex seemed a lot happier. The sadness was still evident in his eyes, but his smile seemed more genuine. Her and Alex didn't discuss their second kiss or the situation from yesterday and she wasn't going to be the one to bring it up. If he wanted to talk about it, he would have to start first, she didn't want to bring more unnessecary heartache into him.

By band rehearsal on Friday though, Lexie was incredibly proud of Alex. He'd finished the song.

Her, Jack, Rian and Zack were waiting for Alex to come back downstairs for band practice. He had said he needed to go get something. When he came back down, he was carrying his acoustic guitar and a couple pieces of paper. He looked very nervous.

"Um, guys, I've been writing a new song. I've got all the lyrics down and the main guitar part but I haven't got the drums or bass done yet... I was wondering if you would mind listening to it?" he asked, sounding very awkward. When he said it though, Lexie beamed with pride and Alex smiled back at her.

The guys agreed, looking curiously at Lexie though as she seemed to be the only one who knew what was going on. Alex sat down on a stool and said, "It's called Lullabies."

When he played it, Lexie felt tears well up in her eyes. It was beautiful. So full of raw emotion. She glanced at the guys and saw that they too seemed captivated by the words he was singing.

When the song finished, Alex cleared his throat and said, "So, what did you guys think?"

There was a long pause before Rian said, "That almost brought me to man-tears, dude."

Jack and Zack nodded in agreement and Alex smiled.

"What made you decide to write that song?" Rian asked.

Alex glanced at Lexie and said "Well I think you guys know the meaning behind that song, but I just needed a way of getting my emotions out. Plus, Lexie made me do it."

The three of them looked at her in surprise but she just shrugged. She didn't want to go into too much detail about their conversation from the other day.

"I'll finish the rest of the music for next week," Alex told them. "Until then, let's start practicing! There's Battle of the Bands next week and I think we have a good chance to win."

* * *

><p>Lexie was sitting in her room at home reading Harry Potter, when Alex called her.<p>

"Hey," she said.

"Hey Lexie, I just wanted to thank you for getting me to write that song. It really did help. I played it for my mom as well earlier and she just started hugging and kissing me," he said laughing. "She also wanted me to say thank you on her behalf... you know, for helping me."

"No problem, I'm glad I could help," she told him smiling, even though he couldn't see her.

"Yeah, so I was wondering if you're doing anything tomorow?" he asked.

"No, I don't think so," she replied.

"D'ya fancy coming to the mall with me and Jack tomorow?"

Lexie laughed, "You're going to the mall?"

"Hey! Guys can go shopping too! I wanna get some new trainers and Jack just wants to go so he can get food, like the fatty he is," he said laughing.

"Sure, I'll come along. What time?"

"Me and Jack will come round to yours at about 12," he said.

"Okie dokie," she replied cheerfully. "See you tomorow, then."

"Bye, Lexie," he said and hung up.

Well, she now had something to look forward to this weekend. When he had asked her though, she thought he had been asking her on a date and that made her incredibly nervous. Her and Alex weren't a couple or anything, but those two kisses they shared had to mean something, right?

While she was pondering this, her phone started ringing again. She picked it up, expecting Alex to be calling again but it was Rachel.

"Hello?" she said.

"Hey, I was wondering if you're free tomorow?" Rachel asked and Lexie frowned. Bad timing.

"I'm not, sorry. I'm going to the mall with Alex and Jack," she told her.

There was a long pause. "Oh, alright. Never mind then, bye," she said and hung up.

_Well that was blunt_, she thought.

* * *

><p>Lexie woke up about 9am Saturday morning and immediately hopped out of bed to get a shower. She dried and straightened her hair, then braided it to one side like she usually does. She left her bangs the way they were and added a flower into her hair.<p>

Looking out of the window, she saw that it was pretty sunny and so decided to wear her denim shorts, a black vest top with a white short-sleeved checkered shirt over it and her white pumps.

There was a knock on the front door just as she had finished making her toast. She grabbed a napkin and started eating it on the way out. She opened the door to see Jack and Alex standing there, Jack looking very hyper already.

She closed the door behind her and said "Hi!" through a mouthful of her food.

Alex laughed, "Hello."

"You look nice today, Lexie," Jack said looking her up and down.

She quickly swallowed the bit of food she was chewing and said "Well, thank you Jack. You don't look too bad yourself."

Jack grinned and then put his fist in the air and yelled, "To the mall!" He started running off down the street then stopped when he realised that Lexie and Alex weren't following.

"Come on, guys!" Jack groaned.

They both laughed and walked to where Jack was waiting and they walked together to the bus stop.

Their ride to the mall was fun as Jack couldn't stop making stupid jokes and impersonations. Lexie was incredibly comfortable around the both of them, which she found surprising as she had only known them a couple of weeks and she's usually a very socially awkward person. She figured it was just them - they had infectious personalities and it was difficult to not feel comfortable and at ease when you're around them.

They got to the mall where Jack immediately bought a can of red bull, despite Alex's protests that he was hyper enough already.

"He's going to drive you crazy," Alex muttered when Jack came out of the shop.

"It's fine, I can handle him," Lexie said chuckling.

Alex bought a new pair of Nike trainers and Lexie made them go into the nearest girly shop she could find, where she bought a new pair of shorts and some more tights.

They were sitting in Starbucks, when Alex just started grinning randomly.

"What?" Lexie asked.

"D'ya wanna go in Victoria's Secret?" Alex asked mischeviously.

"I don't even know what that is," Lexie told him and both him and Jack looked at her mouths wide open.

"How can you not know what Victoria's Secret is?" Jack exclaimed, earning him a few stares from the people around them.

"We don't have it in England," she told them.

"Oh, good point," Alex said. "Well, it's a very sexy underwear shop."

"So it's like Ann Summers then, or La Senza?" she said.

"I don't know what they are," Alex said.

"They're the England equivalents to Victoria's Secret," she said.

"Wait, there's two sexy shops in England?" he said excitedly.

Lexie laughed, "Yes."

"Man, I wanna go to England," Jack muttered.

"Why would I want to go in Victoria's Secret, anyway?" Lexie queried.

"I just thought you might want some more lacy underwear," Alex said winking.

Lexie glared, "I still haven't forgiven you for going through my drawers, Gaskarth."

"Wait, Lexie has lacy underwear?" Jack exclaimed.

Alex turned to him, excited and said, "Yeah, I found it in her room. It was very revealing."

"I can't belive you guys!" Lexie cried. "Leave me alone," she said pouting her lip.

"Aw, I'm sorry," Alex said patting her on the head, making Lexie glare. "So it's a no to Victoria's Secret, then?"

"Definately," she told them and both Alex and Jack looked glum.

She was just about to say something else, when Rachel walked in with Mark. Mark smiled at Lexie when he saw her, but Rachel narrowed her eyes at her from across the room.

Alex must have noticed Lexie's hurt expression, because he turned around to see what she was starting at and scoffed when he saw Rachel.

"Why does she hate me?" Lexie wondered aloud.

"She doesn't hate you. She hates me, which means she hates the fact that we're hanging out together," Alex said.

"Ugh," Lexie groaned. "I wish she would just get over it, I want to be her friend but I can't if she's judging me for who I want to hang out with."

"I don't like Rachel anymore," Jack said. "Not after she cut my lip anyway."

Alex and Lexie laughed and Lexie heard a tutter from across the room and saw Rachel still looking at her angrily. Lexie sighed.

Her phone buzzed and she got it out to check who it was from. She was expecting some sort of hate message from Rachel, but it was from Noah.

**From: Noah**

_I'm off out tonight, I'm assuming dad is too. I won't be back too late, but you'll have to get your own dinner tonight, I left money for a takeaway if you want one. Have a friend stay over or something, so you don't get too lonely x_

She sighed and messaged back,

_Okay, will do. Have a good night x_

Alex was looking at her questionly, so she figured the sadness must have been showing in her eyes, then a thought occured to her.

"Do you guys wanna stay over at mine tonight? My brother and dad are out tonight, so he said I can have someone over," she said.

Jack and Alex both grinned. "Sure. We'd love to. Will there be food?" Jack asked.

Lexie laughed, "Yes, Noah said he's left some money for a takeaway."

"Excellent!" Jack yelled. "Shall we go, then?"

Lexie nodded and followed Alex and Jack out of Starbucks, heading home. Tonight was going to be fun.

* * *

><p><strong>So, this chapter was pretty much just a filler chapter, which I hate doing but it was neccessary.<strong>

**Next chapter in a couple of days xo**


	11. Chapter 10: The Movie Night

Alex and Jack made themselves comfortable in Lexie's living room while she went upstairs to search for suitable sleeping places for the both of them. All she got was sleeping bags.

She came back downstairs and sat down next to Jack and said, "So, all I have is a couple of sleeping bags. That's the best I can offer."

Jack was about to say something, but Alex interuppted. "Lexie, your bed is big enough to fit two people..." he said trailing off, a mischevious glint in his eyes.

Lexie narrowed her eyes at him, "Yes it is, but I didn't think my brother would be happy with me sharing a bed with a guy... unless you fancy sharing a bed with Jack."

Both Alex and Jacks faces scrunched up in a comical expression of disgust and Lexie laughed.

But Alex said, "It's not like I'm going to try anything. You slept in the same bed as me when you were at my house."

Jack looked shocked, "You two slept in the same bed?"

"It's not a big deal, Jack," Lexie told him.

Jack pouted, then turned to Alex and said, "What makes you think you're going to be the one sharing a bed with Lexie?"

"Because she likes me better, duh," he replied.

"That's not true! Lexie, you like me better, right?" Jack asked turning to her and Lexie felt uncomfortable.

"Guys, stop it! I love you both, okay? And fine, one of you can get in my bed with me, I don't care who," she said. But she did care. She liked Jack... as a friend only, but she wasn't about to say anything about that.

* * *

><p>They spent the next couple of hours watching lame TV shows and completely lost track of time until the sound of Lexie's stomach rumbling reminded them that they hadn't ate anything yet. Also, looking at the clock, they saw that it was nearly 9pm already.<p>

Lexie got up from her position on the sofa and picked up the phone. "I'll order a couple of pizzas, what do you guys want on it?"

"Pepperoni!" They both chimed in unison. Laughing, Lexie dialed the number and ordered two pepperoni pizzas.

"It will be about half an hour," she told them. "Do you wanna pick a film out or something?"

"Sure thing," Alex said and got up. "They're in your room, right?"

Lexie nodded then added, "But if I catch either you or Jack going through my stuff, I will kill you.

Alex held his hands up innocently, "Who said I was going to?"

She scowled at him but headed upstairs anyway, into her room and got her box of DVD's out.

Jack immediately ran in and dived onto her bed, but he did so with such force that he flew straight off and landed on the floor with a thud.

"Ow!" he yelled and Alex and Lexie both burst out laughing.

"It's not funny!" Jack cried.

"Dude, you gotta admit, it's a little funny," Alex said.

Jack glared at Alex and pulled himself off the floor and sat down on the end of her bed.

"Okay, who's in the mood for a horror film?" Lexie asked.

"I am! What've you got?" Alex inquired.

"I don't know, have a look. I'm going to get changed," she told them and grabbed her clothes that were laying on her pillows.

She didn't trust them alone in her room, but she wanted to put her pyjamas on. Well, they weren't really pyjamas. Her sleepwear was basically a white vest top and a pair of black booty shorts.

She got changed in the bathroom and when she came back into her room, Alex and Jack were still looking through the DVD's, but she heared them talking in quick hushed voices. She stood at the doorway watching and listening. They didn't seem to be aware that she was right there. She only managed to pick up part of the conversation.

"I don't know if I should do it though," Alex was whispering.

"Come on, man up. What are you scared of?" Jack whispered back.

"A lot of things, dude. What if she says no or -" Alex was saying but Jack interupted.

"She won't say no, trust me. She really likes you, I can tell," Jack said and Alex was about to say something else when Lexie made her presence known by walking further into the room and sitting down on the bed. She tried to remain aloof and pretend that she hadn't heard anything.

"You picked a film?" she asked them.

Alex looked kind of dazed, then said, "Wanna watch Wrong Turn?"

Lexie grimaced, "Ugh, I hate that film. It's awful."

"All the more reason to watch it," Alex said grinning.

"Fine," she said sighing. "Jack, any objections?"

"None," he said smirking.

"I hate you both," she said and grabbed the film, heading back downstairs. She put the film on the coffee table as Alex and Jack sat back down when the doorbell rang.

"Ooh, food!" Lexie said and Alex laughed.

Lexie grabbed the money from the counter and payed the delivery guy, then placed the two pizzas on the table. She then put the DVD on and sat down in between Alex and Jack, who were already eating.

"Have you seen this before?" Lexie asked Alex.

"Nope, that's why I wanted to watch it," he replied.

"Well, it's awful and I hate it," she said getting a slice of pizza.

Alex laughed, "So I've heard."

As the opening credits were starting, Jack said, "You know what would make this scarier?"

"What?" Lexie asked feeling nervous. She really hated this film. She didn't want to watch a film about creepy cannibals and people getting murdered in the woods.

"If we turned the lights off," he answered, trying to put on a spooky voice.

"Yeah, absolutely terrifying," Alex said, the sarcasm obvious in his voice.

"I'm not turning the lights off," Lexie said. "Now just shut up and watch the film.

They did just that. They finished off the pizza and watched the movie in silence, cringing at the gruesome parts. About half way through the film, Lexie had sat so that her knees were against her chest and she rested her head on them, hiding her face whenever somebody was about to get killed. Jack had fallen asleep and he was laying with half of his body on the floor.

She could feel Alex watching her and he whispered, "Hey, you alright?"

She nodded, "I'm fine, I just really hate this movie." She cringed as the body of one of the girls got brutally butchered and eaten.

Alex didn't say anything else for a bit, then muttered, "Isn't it obvious that all those cars belong to the cannibals? Why would you go up there? See, now he's just got shot in the leg... idiot."

Lexie giggled and Alex continued, "Don't take their car! That's just going to make them angry and you'll get yourself eaten like your friend did! Look, see, he just got shot in the back with arrows. Now his body is going back with them and he's going to be made into supper."

Lexie laughed at Alex's frustrations with the film and rested her head on Alex's shoulder. He shifted his position and put his arm around her shoulders, pulling her closer. She put her arms around him and snuggled into his chest as he made more commentary on the film.

When the film was reaching an end, Alex said, "Well you were right about this. It's disgusting."

"I warned you," she said.

The credits rolled and the film came to and end and the room became silent.

"We should probably wake Jack up," Alex whispered. Lexie nodded but made no move to go anywhere, Jack was pretty much sparko on the floor now. She looked up at Alex and his beautiful brown eyes were staring back down at her.

Alex lowered his face closer to hers so that their foreheads were touching and Lexie could feel his breath fanning over her face, making her brain go fuzzy. He bashed his nose against hers lightly, causing her head to lift up a bit more and then his lips were pressing against hers. He tasted like pizza and lemonade, but she didn't care. Not at all. She felt his tongue slide against her bottom lip, asking for entrance and she shivered at his touch but granted it all the same. Alex's hands moved to hold her face, kissing her even harder as if his life depended on it and she twined her fingers into his hair, pulling on it lightly.

As their kiss deepened, Lexie bit down lightly on Alex's bottom lip, issuing a moan from him, sounding deep in his throat and resulted in him kissing her even harder and more passionate than before, if that was even possible. His hands roamed down to her waist and his thumbs rubbed circles into her hips.

Lexie pulled back, gasping for air and whispered breathlessly, "We really should wake Jack up."

"I know," Alex whispered back but started to kiss her along her jawline, down her neck and back up again, leaving a trail of fire in his wake. This was pure bliss and Lexie moaned as she felt his teeth bite down on the top of her shoulder, sucking on the skin there. She knew that it was going to leave a very noticeable mark, but at this moment, she just didn't care.

His lips ghosted over her neck and across her cheek until they finally reached her lips again and their mouths moulded together perfectly. Alex's hands drifted underneath her vest, feeling her bare skin and holding her there. Lexie felt as if she could have gone further. Her mind was filled with images of her and Alex. Of him taking her shirt off completely. Them going upstairs, still kissing with a furious passion.

But they were interupted by the sound of Jack bashing his head off of the coffee table.

"Ow!" Jack yelled and Lexie immediately yelped and shifted off Alex, blushing furiously, but Jack appeared to not have noticed anything.

"How did I get down here? Did I fall asleep?" Jack asked confused.

"Yeah, dude. The film just finished, we were about to wake you up," Alex told him. His voice was completely calm, but his cheeks were rather flushed and his lips looked red and wet.

"Ugh, sorry," Jack groaned, but Alex and Lexie exchanged a look. They weren't sorry for that. Not that Lexie didn't want Jack there, but him falling asleep allowed them some private time.

"Well we going to bed?" Lexie said, feeling flustered. They both nodded and Lexie turned off the television and made her way upstairs, following the guys.

"Jack, the sleeping bag's there," she said gesturing to it, where it was laying by her wardrobe. Jack got it out and climbed into it, falling asleep immediately.

"I wish I could fall asleep like that," Lexie muttered, climbing into her bed.

"The kid's got talent," Alex said, then paused. "Would it be innapropriate for me to strip down to my boxers?"

Lexie smirked, "It's fine."

Alex grinned and took off his jeans and t-shirt and Lexie felt herself gazing at his body in admiration. He caught her looking and winked at her, causing her to blush.

He climbed into bed next to her and turned to face her. "You are really beautiful, you know."

She blushed, "I'm really not."

"You are though," he said and he moved his hand to push the hair out of her eyes. "I mean it."

She didn't really know how to respond, "Well thanks, I guess."

"I know you don't believe it, but I wouldn't lie," he told her sincerely.

She smiled broadly at him, not really knowing what to say. He sensed this and so turned round to flick the lamp off. "Goodnight, Lexie," he whispered.

"Night," she whispered back and surprisingly, she was asleep within minutes.

* * *

><p><strong>I just want to say, even though I hate doing this, can you guys please leave me some reviews? I've been getting emails about many of you favouriting this and putting it on story alert, which I am really grateful for, but I also really need some feedback. Leave me any comments, I don't care. I appreciate any comment made, even criticism because I take it all into account. So I'd really like to know what you're all thinking of this story and any suggestionsimprovements, please?**

**I would also like to give a big shout out to Can't . Be. Saved **

**You have been a very loyal reviewer and I really appreciate it. If I could hug you over the internet, I would.**

**Anyway, next update will be on Sunday. Good-day! :)**


	12. Chapter 11: The Confusion

When Lexie woke in the morning, she was laying on her stomach and she could feel something heavy pressing onto her back. Shifting slightly to look, she saw Alex still asleep next to her, with his arm draped over her, his hand resting on her hip. Very slowly and carefully, she moved his arm off her and got out of bed. Looking at the clock, she saw it was only 8am. She usually got up later than this, but she knew she wouldn't be able to get back to sleep now.

She walked quietly downstairs to see if anybody was up yet, but apparently not. Infact, Noah's car wasn't even in the driveway. Had he stayed out? She had no idea where her dad was and right now she didn't care.

She stayed downstairs for a while, drinking some coffee, contemplating whether to wake Alex and Jack up. She was alone and bored, so she just thought '_Fuck it.'_ She went back upstairs and saw Jack still asleep, sprawled out on the floor and Alex asleep on her bed in the exact same position she left him in.

She wasn't sure how to go about waking him up, so she did the first thing that came to mind. She jumped on him and he woke with a start and banged his head off the wall. This woke Jack up, who sat up looking around the room in confusion.

Lexie couldn't contain her laughter and Alex was sat glaring at her, rubbing the back of his head.

"Why did you do that?" he yelled.

"I was bored," she replied, shrugging.

"I hate you," he groaned and slumped back on the mattress.

"Come on," she whined. "I'm bored, get your ass out of bed."

"If I get up can I have food?" he asked.

"Yes you can," she said and Alex climbed out of bed. Jack also got up off the floor.

"Sleep well?" she asked him.

"Your floor is suprisingly comfortable," Jack told her. He didn't appear to have energy at all this morning.

"I slept very well," Alex said smirking.

Lexie scoffed and said, "Come on, I'll find some food."

The three of them ended up sitting on the sofa, eating bowls of cereal watching Nickelodeon. Lexie didn't care that it was a childrens channel, the shows were fucking awesome.

"You coming to band practice today?" Alex asked her

"I don't know if I should, I haven't spent much time with my brother lately and with everything going on with my dad..." she said trailing off.

Alex pouted, "_Please, _Lexie?"

She looked into his pleading eyes then sighed, "Fine, I'll go."

"Excellent," Alex said grinning.

She shook her head laughing, "I'm going to go shower."

She went upstairs into the bathroom and stepped into the warm spray of the shower. She immediately felt all her muscles relax and she sighed in content.

She took this time to think about her life at the moment. She was actually pretty happy with her life since they moved to Baltimore. Her main worry right now was the condition of her dad, she didn't want him going down the same path again. She was worried that he would do something stupid and her and Noah would be left with the burden of everything.

Then she thought about Alex. She had no idea what was going on between them really, they weren't exactly dating or anything. But they were more than friends, right? Lexie felt confused, he had been the one to initiate the kisses they had before, even the one at the party with spin the bottle. He wouldn't kiss her if he didn't like her, would he? The kissing they did last night were not very innocent either and although Lexie wasn't sure where she stood with Alex, she couldn't deny that kissing him was fantastic.

She stepped out of the shower and noticed that she didn't bring a towel in with her._ Oh fuck_ she thought. How could she forget to do that? She could try and dash to the end of the hall where the towels were kept and go into her room, but she didn't know where Alex and Jack were. What if they were in her room and they saw her?

Sighing, she opened the door just enough to stick her head out.

"Alex!" she called out.

There was silence, then she heard him yell from downstairs, "Yeah?"

"Will you come up here please, I need a favour!" she yelled back.

She heard him walking up the stairs and saw him glancing into her room when he reached the top, confusion crossing his face when he saw she wasn't there.

"Alex, I'm here," she whispered angrily.

He turned around and looked at her. His eyes widened and his mouth dropped open slightly. She felt his eyes rake over her exposed collarbone to the top of her breasts which was the only part of her that was exposed, other than part of her left leg.

She felt uncomfortable with him staring at her, so she cleared her throat.

His eyes snapped back up and he shook his head, dazed. "I-uh-what did you want?"

"Can you get me a towel please? They're in the cupboard at the end of the hallway," she said, gesturing behind him. He walked to it and grabbed a towel then walked up to the bathroom and Lexie felt incredibly self-concious. He might not have been able to see her properly, but she was completely naked on the other side of the door.

She stuck her arm out for the towel and he handed it to her silently, eyes fixed with hers.

"Thank you," she murmered quietly and she slipped back into the bathroom closing the door behind her. She quickly towel dried her hair and wrapped her towel tightly around her body, before leaving the bathroom and going into her room, intending on getting dressed in there as she hadn't brought in any spare clothes either.

But she walked in and Alex was sitting on her bed, flipping through a magazine that was lying on her bedside table.

"Alex!" she yelled shocked. "Why are you just sat in my room?"

"Because Jack has gone home and I was lonely," he replied.

She titled her head, confused, "Why has he gone home?"

"His mom rang him to ask him to come home. He slept in his clothes from yesterday so he didn't need to change or anything. He took a can of red bull from your fridge though," he said.

She laughed, "Of course he did."

She then became very hyper aware of the fact that she was only wrapped in a towel and he was sitting on her bed in just his boxers. She stood there awkwardly, before deciding she should probably actually get some clothes. She walked over to her dresser and pulled a pair of jeans out and a t shirt. She was about to get some underwear out, when she sensed that Alex was behind her.

Sure enough, she turned around and he was standing infront of her, eyes scanning her face and body. His hand traced along her cheek, down her neck and across her shoulder. His hand paused and she felt his fingers lightly prodding her skin.

"It appears that I left a mark," he said softly and Lexie looked at her shoulder. There was a resounding purple mark on her shoulder. It would be easy enough to cover up though as long as she didn't wear any vests and she stuck to wearing t-shirts.

She was about to say something but Alex suddenly grabbed her waist and kissed her roughly. The force knocked her backwards and her body slammed into her dresser, but he didn't stop. One of his hands slipped down to her thigh, right at the bottom of where her towel was. His hand started slowly moving upwards and Lexie quickly pushed his arm back down and moved away from him.

She didn't know what to say, so she quickly grabbed some underwear from her draw and went into the bathroom to get changed. When she was dressed, she tied her wet hair up into a loose bun and walked back into her room and sat next to Alex.

Lexie wasn't sure how to start this conversation, but Alex started talking first.

"I'm sorry if I hurt your back," he said and she just laughed lightly.

"It's fine," she told him.

"So um, Lexie, I kind of like you," he said and Lexie thought she sensed nerves in his voice.

"I like you too, Alex," she said softly, shifting closer to him.

He looked surprised, "I know we've only known each other for a couple of weeks, but I really think I'm fall-"

His words were cut off as the front door slammed from downstairs.

"Lexie?" Noah called. "Are you in?"

"Yeah, I'm upstairs!" she called back. She glanced at Alex who now looked like he would much rather be anywhere but here.

"I'll just get dressed," he said and he put his clothes back on, then started putting his shoes back on too. "You coming to band practice tonight, then?"

She nodded, unable to speak. Had Alex been about to say what she thought he was about to say?

"Rian's house at 3," he told her then stood up. "I best get going, see you later."

He left her room and she heard the sound of him going downstairs and the front door shutting. Sighing, she went back downstairs where Noah was standing in the living room confused.

"Who was that?" he asked.

"My friend Alex. He stayed over last night," she told him and sensed that he was angry about that, so she added, "You said I could have a friend over.

"Yeah, I was expecting Rachel or something."

"Well Rachel hates me at the moment, so I asked Alex."

Noah frowned then said, "Dad rang me this morning. He said he stayed over at a friends from work last night."

"Of course he did," Lexie muttered. "I've barely seen him at all since we moved here."

"I know, me neither. When he gets back I'm going to talk to him."

Lexie nodded. "I'm going back to my room."

She went back upstairs and layed down on her bed, thinking. Her and Alex's kiss this morning was pretty random but she only pulled away because his hands were getting too high up on her leg for her liking. Not that she didn't actually like it... because damn, she would love to feel his hands everywhere. But she thought it was a bit too much to be doing something like that now.

Then there was their very brief conversation. Was he really going to say that he was falling for her? That thought made her heart flutter nervously. Did she feel the same way? This was all too confusing for her. Sighing, she got up to dry her hair, getting ready for later.


	13. Chapter 12: The Battle of the Bands

Things were normal between Alex and Lexie at band practise, infact, Alex acted as though nothing had happened. Which in truth, nothing did really happen. But he had been about to say something to her, which sounded very much like 'I'm falling for you' and Lexie couldn't help going over ideas in her head of what would have happened if he had a chance to say it.

Battle of the Bands was on Friday and All Time Low were up against two other bands; Out Of Time and Unconfirmed. Now, Lexie had no idea who those two bands were, but she was sure All Time Low would win. She was worried about going though, she doubted that Rachel would go with her, so would she be sitting there by herself while the guys were backstage and playing their set?

This problem was solved though, when she spoke of her worries. Rian told her that his girlfriend Kara was coming too, so she could hang with her. Lexie was nervous about meeting her, but the guys all seemed to like her, so she put that thought out of her head.

Her week at school was the usual stuff, the only class she still found difficult was French. But Lexie realised that she just had to accept that she would never be good at languages. She was talking to Alex like normal. Rachel was talking to her as well, but Lexie noticed that she was a bit more blunt with her when they were talking and less caring.

Lexie still hadn't talked to her dad much, it felt to her as though her and Noah didn't even matter anymore. She never saw him in the morning, he had already gone, then he doesn't come home till night-time and then he goes straight upstairs to bed. She hadn't spoken to Noah much about this, she was waiting for him to bring it up as he said that he would try and speak to him.

* * *

><p>Friday evening, Lexie was just about ready to go to the Battle of the Bands. She had to walk round to Rian's house as he lived just down the street and they were all getting a cab to the venue from there. She had no idea what people wore to these sort of things, so after a long time pondering, she decided on a pair of black skinny jeans, her black and white converse with the stars on them, and a black tank top with a grey checkered shirt over it. She had had her hair in a braid all day, so she pulled her hair out of it and let it fall in it's natural curls, then added her favourite black headband. She thought she looked pretty decent.<p>

She grabbed her bag from her dresser, slung it over her shoulder and went downstairs where Noah was watching TV.

"I won't be back too late," she told him. "But I'm not too sure when this sort of thing would finish, I'll text you though when I'm on my way back home so you know."

"Okay, chick. Have a nice time," he said and Lexie left the house.

She walked round to Rian's house and noticed them all sitting outside his house, waiting.

"Am I late?" she asked curiously, sitting down next to Zack on the garden wall.

"Nah, we just decided to sit out here," Rian told her. "We're still waiting for Alex to get here."

Lexie looked around them and noticed someone else was missing. "Where's Kara?"

"Oh, she's just gone to the bathroom," Rian said.

"So, Lexie," Jack began, "You think we're gonna win?"

Lexie smiled, "Well I hope you guys do. I've never even heard of the other bands."

"Out Of Time are terrible," came a voice from behind them. Lexie turned and saw a girl standing there, assuming that was Kara.

"Well that's good for us then," Jack said.

Kara sat next to Lexie and smiled, "You must be Lexie, I'm Kara."

"Yep, hi," she replied smiling back.

They sat chatting for a couple of minutes and Lexie decided that she quite liked Kara. She was very easy to get along with.

After what seemed like forever, Alex finally arrived.

"You're late, dude," Rian said, pulling his phone out to call a cab.

"I'm very aware of that, but we'll be there in good time don't worry," he said and sat on the other side of Kara and Lexie caught him looking at her out of the corner of her eye.

"Cab's on it's way. We're meeting Matt, Evan and Vinny there," Rian said sitting back down.

"Who?" Lexie inquired.

"Matt's our manager, he's the one that got us this gig, Evan is our sound guy and Vinny is our merch manager."

Lexie nodded and nobody really spoke after that until the cab arrived. It was a seven seater.

Zack took the front seat next to the driver. Rian and Kara took the two seats at the very back and Lexie ended up squished between Alex and Jack.

Jack seemed very hyper and kept playing with her hair.

"You should have your hair like this all the time," he told her, giggling. "It's pretty."

Lexie laughed, for he was putting on the most ridiculous voice ever. She said, "Your hair is very pretty too, Jack."

"Yay!" he yelled and then continued playing with her hair.

Lexie stole a glance at Alex who was also looking at her. They stared into each other's eyes and she felt herself getting lost in his brown orbs. He had beautiful eyes. His eyes broke away from hers and trailed down the rest of her body slowly, then back up again. When he looked back up, he was smiling.

Lexie blushed at the way he was looking at her and suddenly found the hem of her shirt very interesting. She could feel him still watching her and out of the corner of her eye, she saw him smirking.

Mercifully, they reached their destination then and after paying the driver, they stood outside the doors of the venue, where 3 guys were waiting for them who Lexie assumed to be Matt, Evan and Vinny.

After a quick introduction, Matt told them they had to go backstage where they would be for the rest of the evening until their set was finished. They were on last, as well.

Lexie and Kara were left alone in the venue and after grabbing some drinks and a bag of peanuts each, they found a table to sit at. The venue they were in was not like a typical concert place; there was the obvious bar and merch tables, but the room was mainly filled with tables and chairs. There was a big space infront of the stage where people could obviously go to stand up and watch, but Lexie and Kara chose to sit down for now. The space infront of the stage was already full though.

They sat in silence for a couple of minutes and Lexie had just put a handful of peanuts into her mouth when Kara said, "So how long have you and Alex been going out?"

Lexie coughed and spat peanuts everywhere, choking on a few of them too. Kara hit her on the back to stop her from dying and then when Lexie had stopped choking, she just said, "What?"

"Oh come on, I've seen the way he looks at you," Kara said smirking.

"We're not going out," Lexie told her, but found herself thinking about what Kara just said. Lexie had also seen the way Alex looked at her, especially after sitting next to him in the car.

"Really?" Kara said skeptically, raising her eyebrow. "Has nothing happened between you two at all?"

Lexie shifted nervously, "Well yeah, we've kissed a few times, but..." She didn't really know how to continue.

"What kind of kisses has it been? Like, sweet and innocent or passionate?" Kara questioned.

Lexie found herself growing more uncomfortable with what she was asking her. Why did it matter?

"Well... we've had both, really. The first time we kissed was during a game of spin-the-bottle; that was pretty heated." She wasn't sure if she should mention the kiss they shared after she had talked to him about Daniel, so she went on to the other one. "Then when he stayed at my house, we had a pretty hot make-out session on my sofa."

Kara looked like she was thinking intently, "Hmm, you said you've had a sweet and innocent kiss too, what was that like?"

Lexie had no idea why she was telling Kara all about her and Alex, she hadn't told anyone else. But there was just something about her that made her trusting; Lexie knew somehow that she wouldn't go blabbing to anybody about it, nor would she make fun of her. She felt strangely comfortable in her presence.

"Well, do you know about Alex's brother?" Lexie asked.

Kara nodded, so Lexie continued, "Well I went round to his house and we had a very uh, deep conversation about everything. I encouraged him to write Lullabies and we were just talking for a bit. Then he thanked me and we kissed... it was very sweet."

Kara was smiling. "Anything else?"

She was about to say no, when she remembered what happened Sunday morning. "Well, Sunday morning after he had stayed at my house, I had just gotten out of the shower and he kind of assaulted me into a kiss. And his hand trailed up my thigh which made me very nervous as I was pretty much naked, but I pushed him off me..."

"Did anything happen before that?" Kara inquired.

Lexie laughed slightly, "Well, he may have seen me nearly naked... sort of. I forgot my towel so I called him up and asked if he could get me one. I was hid behind the door, but obviously not all of me was, the top of my chest was visible... as was a lot of my leg."

There was a silence and Lexie asked, "Why are you so interested in what's going on between me and Alex?"

"I'm good at things like this, I'm a great listener. I could see the looks you two shared so I figured something was going on, so I decided to ask you. It's not that I'm wanting to be really nosey into your private life, but I can tell you've been wanting to talk to somebody about this, other than Alex of course."

Lexie nodded. "So do you think he, ya know... likes me?" Lexie asked, feeling like a kid in primary school asking such a childlike question.

Kara grinned, "Oh definately. Listen to me, I'm very good at this relationship stuff. From what you've told me, I've gathered this: first, Alex is sexually attracted to you. You've said that you've had a couple of passionate kisses, which obviously means that he was really into it. Also, you said he kind of assaulted you into a kiss when you were pretty much naked, after he had seen you almost naked; that obviously means that he's been looking at you in _that_ way, as so much of your body was being shown. Plus you said that he started trailing his hand up your thigh... he definately wants you."

Lexie didn't really know what you say, she just opened and closed her mouth a couple of times, before finally saying, "So how do you know he doesn't just want me for that reason only?"

"Easy," Kara said smiling. "You said that you had been talking to him about Daniel, that's something that's very personal to him. I don't think he's ever talked to anybody else about it, really. You're the reason that he actually finished writing that song! He's tried to write that song for the past couple of years, but he's never managed to do it, then you come along and he writes a perfect song. I don't obviously know everything you two discussed, but it would have made a strong connection between you both; you've seen the vulnerable side of Alex. Trust me, if he just wanted you for sex, he wouldn't have let you see him like that. The fact that he kissed you then, just proves that he likes you; he kissed you sweetly, which wouldn't have happened if he was in it just for sex."

Lexie's mouth hung slightly open. "How do you get all _that_ from me telling you that we've kissed a couple of times?"

"I told you, I'm good at relationship stuff. I know how to analyse the simplest details. Trust me, he likes you. The only girl he was kind of serious about before was Lisa and the way he looks at you is way more caring than the way he looked at her. Come on, you could cut the sexual tension between you and Alex with a knife."

Lexie blushed. Was Kara right about all this? Did Alex really like her that much? It was then that Lexie remembered her and Alex's unfinished conversation. She gasped when she remembered, feeling suddenly elated about her and Alex's relationship.

"I just remembered something!" Lexie said. "After Alex had assaulted me, I had gone to get dressed and then we started talking, but then my brother came home and Alex stopped whatever he was going to say."

"What do you think he was going to say?" Kara asked.

"Well, he said he liked me first, but I assumed he just meant as friends but I didn't want to say anything. Then he said 'I think I'm fall-' as my brother came home, cutting him off. Do you think he was going to say he's falling for me?" Lexie asked nervously.

Kara squealed with delight, "Oh my god, yes! Was he kind of awkward with you afterwards?"

Lexie nodded and Kara squealed again, "Obviously he felt awkward because he didn't finish what he wanted to say and he wasn't sure what do then. He probably knows that you've guessed what he wanted to say but doesn't want to bring it up again because he's embarassed incase you don't feel the same way... do you?"

"Do I what?"

"Feel the same way about Alex?"

Lexie bit her lip nervously. Did she? She thought about how she felt when he kissed her, that feeling of pure want and need, but at the same time the feeling of comfort. Alex was a fantastic kisser and if Lexie could just kiss him forever without stopping, then that would be fine with her. But it wasn't just that; she was so comfortable around him, she didn't feel awkward at all - until he started leering innapropriately at her. But she even liked that about him, as strange as it sounded. His perverted comments were incredibly amusing, but when directed at her, it made her feel wanted. He had also called her beautiful on many occasions and Lexie also thought that he was beautiful. His voice was golden and he was amazingly talented. She cared about him, that much was obvious. But could she be falling for him? The more she thought about her and Alex, the more she thought; yes, she could actually be falling for Alex Gaskarth.

She felt Kara studying her as she was deep in thought, but she was too nervous to actually say the answer she was thinking. She blushed under Kara's stares.

Kara smiled knowingly, "You do, don't you?"

Lexie nodded and blushed.

"You've got to tell him!" Kara said.

"No! I'm too much of a pussy to do that."

"What have you got to lose? You know he likes you, it would make him incredibly happy for you to be the one to say it."

"I don't know, it would have to be the right moment for me to bring that sort of thing up..." Lexie said trailing off.

Kara said, "Okay, but you have to promise me you'll say something to him. You two would be absolutely adorable together, so the sooner you get together, the better."

Lexie chuckled, "Okay, I promise. I'll talk to him."

"Good," Kara said.

"Thank you, by the way," Lexie said. "You've actually really helped with this, I had no idea what was going on between me and Alex but talking to you about it has allowed me to realise my... feelings.

"No problem," Kara said grinning. "Ooh, look - the first band's on."

Sure enough, the band called Out Of Time were just about to play and Lexie and Kara turned their attention to the stage.

They weren't that bad actually, but Lexie thought they had nothing on All Time Low. They weren't terrible as Kara had said, but Lexie still wasn't really loving them. Unconfirmed were better than Out Of Time, infact, they were very good. The band was fronted by a blue haired girl with a very powerful voice and Lexie was surprised to see that they had a girl drummer; that was unusual.

Then All Time Low were on. In Lexie's opinion, they were the best band out of the three and judging by the crowd reaction, they thought so too.

There was one really amazing moment during their set though.

They had just finished playing a song called Circles and Alex spoke into his mic. "I want to dedicate this song to my brother, who I miss terribly..." he said, then cleared his throat and continued. "I also want to dedicate it to the amazing girl that encouraged me to write this, so this is for you as well, Lexie."

Lexie felt tears well in her eyes and slip down her cheeks as they played Lullabies. He had dedicated it to her, which made her heart swell with happiness.

After their amazing set, there was a ten minute interval while the judges decided who won. Kara took that time to gush over the fact that Alex had dedicated a song to her and talk about how he was so obviously in love with her.

The three bands were then gathered on the stage, as the results were announced.

"In third place," the judge said, "is Unconfirmed."

Lexie was surprised at that, Unconfirmed were a lot better than Out Of Time.

"In second place is... Out Of Time, which means All Time Low have won Battle of the Bands!"

There was a deafening cheer from the crowd and Lexie and Kara jumped up and down in excitement. They couldn't get to see the guys yet as they would never be able to get through the crowd, so they had to contain some of their excitement for when they saw them.

About 15 minutes later, the crowd had thinned out, people were buying merch and drinks now and Matt came out and said they were allowed backstage. Kara and Lexie immediately hurried through and Kara threw herself into Rian's arms, shouting 'Congratulations' as she did so.

Lexie felt herself getting smothered in a hug by Jack, then wrapped in the large arm muscles that belonged to Zack and she was then stood in front of Alex, who looked very sweaty but still incredibly beautiful all the same.

"Congratulations," she said smiling. "You guys really deserved to win that.

"Thank you," he replied smiling back. They stood there awkwardly for a few more seconds, before Lexie just thought _Fuck it,_ and pulled Alex into a hug.

She felt his whole body relax into hers as he sighed, wrapping his arms tightly around her. She rested her head on his shoulder and she felt his hands stroking her hair.

He released her slightly so that he could look at her, but kept his hands at her waist.

"You look amazing tonight, Lexie," he said softly.

Lexie blushed and said, "So do you."

Alex grinned then pulled on her arm and led her into a quieter corner of the room backstage. The rest of the band were conversing with Kara, and Lexie caught her eye as she looked over. Kara winked and then led them all out into the main room, and mouthed '_You can thank me later'_

Lexie had to stiffle a giggle and looked up into Alex's eyes.

"Look, I wanted to talk to you about last week. I didn't get to finish what I was trying to say to you..." he said and trailed off nervously.

Lexie kind of wanted to say it first, say that she knew what he wanted to say but she couldn't bring herself to do it. What if she was just deluding herself and he wasn't going to say that at all?

"I'm just going to say it; Lexie, I'm falling for you. Falling hard and I don't know how you feel about me but-"

His words were cut off. Lexie had put her arms around his neck and smothered his lips onto hers. She could tell that he was surprised, but she felt his hands slide around her waist anyway and his lips responded to hers.

Alex broke away first, breathing heavily, "That was the first time you innitiated us kissing."

Lexie grinned, "I know."

"So do you feel the same way or did I just make a fool out of myself by saying that?" he asked.

"Isn't the fact that I just kissed you proof enough?"

Alex shrugged, "I wouldn't mind hearing you say it."

Lexie smiled and locked her gaze with his. "I feel the same way, Alex."

"Excellent," he said smiling and kissed her again and again and again. She sighed in contentment. She could really get used to this.

"So are we like... dating?" Lexie asked.

Alex rested his forehead against hers and she could feel his breath over her face. "If you want us to be."

"Mmm," she mumbled and lifted her head up to touch her lips back to his.

"Well it's settled then," Alex murmured when his lips were free. Lexie nodded and smiled, planting one last kiss on his lips before they walked out to join the others, hand in hand. Kara was going to be so smug.

* * *

><p><strong>Okay, I'm going to have some trouble with updates this week; tomorow me and my best friend are having a movie day, but I might be able to do some writing in the evening. I can probably give you guys and update on MondayTuesday time, but after that there won't be another update until the week after.**

**On Wednesday, I'll be at college all day for a taster day thing, as I'm starting there in September. On Thursday I'm having a Harry Potter movie marathon, before seeing the Double Bill at midnight - eeek, I'm so excited. Then Friday I'm going to be out all day and I will then be at my dad's all Saturday and Sunday. Then Monday, I'm out with my friends all day and I'm seeing Harry Potter again. I'm also staying out Monday night. So the very earliest after the next update is going to be Tuesday the 19th (I think it's the 19th anyway)**

**So I'm sorry about the long wait between updates, but there's not much I can really do about it.**

**I hope you enjoyed this chapter anyway, reviews? :)**


	14. Chapter 13: The First Official Date

By the end of school on Monday, everybody seemed to know that Alex Gaskarth was dating the new girl from England. Lexie wasn't sure how everybody found out, but there was nothing to be done about it now. She found herself being questioned by students she had never spoke to before about her relationship with Alex, which she kept insisting wasn't really all that serious; they had only got together a few days ago. But nobody would listen.

Lexie hadn't actually seen Alex much that day at school, so she was curious as to how he was handling the situation. At the end of the day, Lexie grabbed her things from her locker and walked to meet Alex by the entrance as he said he would walk home with her.

Alex was leaning against the wall outside and smiled broadly when he saw her approaching. He held his hand out to her and she put her hand in his and they started walking. It made her glow inside just by the fact that they were holding hands. It may only be a simple gesture, but it made her feel comfortable and safe.

"Have you been experiencing the same kind of day I have, then?" Alex asked.

"And what kind of day have you had?" Lexie replied.

"Well, lets just say that I have been asked more than once if British girls are better in bed than American girls," Alex said, chuckling.

Lexie gasped, "My god, is that all people care about?"

Alex laughed. "We're teenagers, what do you expect?"

"Hmm," Lexie said. "What did you tell them?"

"What?" Alex asked confused.

"What did you tell these people about the British or American girls thing?"

"Oh," Alex said and paused. "Well, I don't know whether you'll be happy about this or not; but I told them that British girls are most definately better in bed than American girls."

Lexie opened her mouth a couple times, not sure of how to react, then said, "So everyone thinks that we're sleeping together, now?"

Alex didn't answer right away and Lexie noticed that they were nearly at her house.

"Well considering I told them that, I would say yes. Does that bother you?"

"Not really," Lexie said honestly. She saw Alex's surprised expression and laughed. "It's not really a big deal, as long as people don't start assuming that I'm a whore or anything."

"So am I allowed to tell them loads of details, then?" Alex asked with a cheeky grin.

"Those details are imaginary," she pointed out. "But I'm not really bothered, honestly. Like I said, just don't make me out to be some kind of whore and it's fine."

They were now at the bottom of Lexie's garden and she was about to say goodbye when Alex spoke first.

"Are you doing anything on Friday?" he asked.

"Nope. Am I about to be?"

"If you fancy it. I was wondering if maybe you'd like to go to the movies or something. Y'know, like our first official date?" Lexie noticed that Alex sounded nervous asking her this, why would he be nervous? They were dating now.

"I'd love to," she replied grinning.

"Awesome," Alex said.

Lexie nodded. "I should go inside," she said gesturing to her house behind them.

Alex reached his hand that wasn't still clasped in hers to cup around her face and kissed her lightly on the lips. She sighed in contentment and then groaned in disapointment when Alex pulled away too soon.

He chuckled lightly, "I'll see you tomorow."

"Bye," she said and headed for the front door while Alex walked off down the street.

* * *

><p>It turned out that Alex wasn't telling anybody any details at all. She had found this out from Rian who told her that Alex was infact being very quiet about him and Lexie. Apparently, he had only given the illusion that they were sleeping together to get everyone to stop harassing him. It seemed to have made things worse though, as now he was constantly being questioned about him and Lexie. But he wasn't saying anything. He was being secretive about them; though it wasn't as though there was much to keep secret anyway.<p>

Lexie didn't actually have it as bad. As Alex had a bit of a reputation for being a 'manwhore', most people had heard what they wanted to hear about him ages ago, but there were some who still asked her things like, 'Do you think he'll cheat on you?' and 'How long do you think you can keep him faithful for?' Lexie just ignored all comments and questions thrown at her, but it was getting difficult as apparently their relationship was the hottest piece of news all year. She hadn't spoken to Rachel at all but she had seen her in lessons and whenever they exchanged gazes, Rachel looked livid.

But on Friday though, Lexie didn't care about any of that. It was her first official date with Alex tonight and she was excited, but nervous at the same time.

School that day was just the same as it had been all week and Lexie was glad to be home. Tonight, they were going to see the latest Harry Potter film and then getting dinner afterwards.

So by 6 o'clock, Lexie was ready. She had no idea what to wear and found herself incredibly nervous about the whole thing and she felt the need to find an outfit that would impress Alex.

Unfortunately though, there was nothing she could find that seemed like the perfect thing to wear, so she decided on something comfortable, but hopefully date-appropriate.

She was wearing a simple dress, which her brother calls her 'sailor dress'. It was white with thin blue stripes at the top, stopping just underneath her bra, and then it was just plain blue. It went to just the top of her knees and she decided to wear her blue converse with them. The dress had pockets as well, which was useful as Lexie hated having to carry bags. She left her hair down and added extra curls to it, then finished with a simple white flower.

This was infact the third outfit she'd tried on and was just contemplating whether to try something else when the doorbell rang. She quickly grabbed her phone from her bed and went downstairs.

She answered the door to a very happy-looking Alex. His hair was styled in it's usual messy style, but he was wearing black jeans, a pair of Nike trainers and a New Found Glory t-shirt.

"I feel like I should have dressed up more," he said as Lexie closed the door behind them.

"Well it's not as if I'm dressed for a ball or anything, is it?"

"No... but you dressed up more than I did," he said and slipped his hand into hers as they walked. "You look very beautiful though."

"Thanks," she mumbled and felt a blush creeping up to her cheeks.

Alex chuckled at her embarassment and they spent their journey to the movies chatting about pretty much everything; from the progress of the band to their favourite TV programmes.

When they got to the movie theatre, they got their tickets and food and took their seats. As it turned out, Alex liked Harry Potter just as much as she did. They continued talking until the lights went down and the previews began being shown.

Halfway through the movie, Lexie's hand was resting on the arm of the chair and Alex clasped it into his own. She looked over at him and he was smiling rather sheepishly. She squeezed his hand tighter and smiled back at him.

After the movie, they walked hand in hand to a Chinese restaurant. They got their table, took their orders and resumed conversation.

"Are you coming to Zack's party tomorow?" Alex asked.

"I wasn't even aware he was having one," she said.

"Yeah, tomorow at 7. You wanna go? Kara's going and I know you two hit it off when you met."

"Sure, I'll go," she said grinning and took a sip of her drink.

They continued talking until their food arrived and they began eating. The conversation throughout dinner turned to past relationships.

"So you said before that you've only ever had one boyfriend..." Alex said, trailing off.

"Yeah," Lexie said, not really sure where he was going with this.

"What was his name? How long were you together? Why did you break up?"

"Jeez, are we playing 20 questions, here?"

"If you want to," Alex said smirking.

"Actually, go on then. Ask me 20 questions, I'll answer them all honestly."

"You're going to regret this," he told her.

"I know," she said chuckling.

"Okay, I'll start with what I said before. What was your boyfriends name?"

"His name was Matthew," she told him.

"How long were you together?"

"About 7 months, I think."

"Why did you break up?"

She bit her lip nervously, she didn't really like talking about it that much.

"He cheated on me. I found out that he had been sleeping with this bitch called Kelly for about 3 months. I found them together at a party once and it turned out that pretty much everyone at my school knew that he had been cheating on me... except for me."

"I'm sorry," Alex said softly.

"It's fine. I'm over it now. I gave him a good kick in the balls and her a good punch before I left. She had a black eye for weeks."

Alex whistled, "Remind me never to get on your bad side."

Lexie laughed, "Another question?"

Alex bit his lip before asking, "Are you a virgin?"

She knew this question was coming and she sighed. "Yeah, I am."

"But you were with him for seven months, right?"

"Yeah, I was. But I had only just turned 15 when we first started dating, I didn't want to loose my virginity at that age. I'm glad I never slept with him, anyway. He was a douchebag."

"Okay, fair enough. We can stop talking about him now. My next question; what do you want to do when you leave school?"

"I want to go into journalism, working for a newspaper or a magazine. Something like that."

"Well you've got the brains for it," he said and Lexie blushed.

The rest of the evening flew by, and Alex asked her precisely 20 questions. She felt like he basically knew everything about her after that date. All the basic things anyway. He was now aware that her biggest fear was fireworks, which he found very amusing, but she just really hated them and always stayed in on Bonfire Night.

They walked back home hand in hand in the cold night.

Lexie shivered as a gust of wind blew around them and Alex put his arm around her pulling her closer against his body. "If I had a jacket, I would have done the cliche thing of putting it over your shoulders. But I didn't bring one, sorry."

Lexie laughed, "It's fine."

"I had a really good time tonight, Lexie," he told her as they rounded the corner to her street.

"So did I," she said.

"I feel like this is a total cliche ending to a date," he said and she could hear the smile in his voice.

"I'm not complaining. I think every girl wants to have a total movie-style date."

"Well then we better finish this properly, hadn't we?" he said as they reached her house. He moved so he was standing infront of her and lowered his lips to hers gently.

She responded with much more force though and stood on her tip-toes, wrapping her arms around his neck as he held her around her waist, pulling her close. The kiss turned passionate within a few seconds as their lips moulded together in perfect harmony.

Lexie was the first to pull away and Alex rested his forehead against hers.

"I could get used to this," he whispered.

"Mmm, me too," she said and brought her mouth back to his one last time before stepping back from him completely. "I should get inside."

"I'll see you tomorow," he said and Lexie noticed his lips were very red.

"Yes, you will," she replied and went inside.

* * *

><p>Lexie was actually going to Zack's party alone. Sure, she would end up meeting Alex, Kara and everybody else there, but she was going there alone.<p>

She was wearing a purple strapless dress that went to the middle of her thighs. She wasn't wearing heals though; she just put on some simple black pumps. Heals to her were like a death-trap. She straightened her hair instead of having it curly and didn't bother adding accessories either. She just left it down.

Noah gave her a lift down to Zack's house and gave her money to get a taxi home as he was going out as well and wouldn't be able to pick her up.

She made her way into Zack's house where the party was already in fully swing and found Kara sitting in the kitchen.

"Hey Lexie!" Kara said and hugged her. "You're looking good."

"So are you, you look gorgeous!" It was true, she was wearing a plain black dress, but it suited her well.

"How are things with you and Alex?" she asked, grinning.

"They're fine, but we've only been dating a week and we only had our first proper date yesterday," she told her.

"Ooh, how was it?"

"It was fantastic. Alex took the opportunity to bombard me with questions about my life, though. But even with that, it was great."

Kara laughed, "Sounds like you two are hitting it off well, though."

"We are. I wanted to thank you again for making me see sense," she told her.

"It's no problem," Kara said then smiled at something Lexie couldn't see. "Speaking of the devil."

Lexie turned around and sure enough, Alex was walking towards them.

"I'm going to um, go find Rian," Kara said, winking at her.

Alex handed her a drink and said, "Your hair looks different."

"I straightened it. It's a miracle what GHD's can do, isn't it?" she said chuckling.

"It's strange seeing you with straight hair, it's usually curly."

"Oh well," she said and sat on the kitchen counter. Alex stood infront of her and took a sip of whatever it was that he was drinking.

"I didn't roofie your drink y'know," he said. "It's just vodka and coke."

"I know, but I can't really handle my drink very well..." she said trailing off.

Alex laughed, "Aw, is Lexie a bit of a lightweight?"

She playfully pushed him backwards, "Leave me alone. It's not my fault."

"Come on, you'll be fine," he told her.

"Alright then," she said and took a sip. "If anything happens to my drunken self, I'm holding you personally responsible."

"What if something happens... that you consent to?" he said smirking.

"Doesn't count if I'm drunk," she told him and jumped off the counter.

"Dammit," he muttered and she laughed, leading him into the living room.

After about an hour, Lexie was pretty much trashed and she was currently sitting with Alex, who apparently had stayed sober so he could watch out for her.

"_Alex_," she whined. "Come dance with me!"

"No, you are completely drunk. I should get you home," he said.

"No!" she cried and pulled him up out of his seat. "Dance with me!"

"Fine," he said groaning and had to hold her tightly to stop her from stumbling all over the place. After a couple of minutes, Alex had apparently had enough.

"Come on, Lexie. I need to get you home," he said.

"Fine," she said pouting and sat down.

Alex called a taxi and as Lexie was having trouble even walking by herself, Alex carried her to the car. Alex also discovered that Lexie was a very giggly and flirty drunk.

When they arrived at her house, he carried her indoors and up to her room where he layed her on her bed.

"Will you stay with me please, Alex?" she asked.

"I shouldn't..." he said.

"_Pleaaaase," _she begged.

"Fine," he said sighing and layed next to her.

Lexie started giggling and got up and straddled his waist, which made her dress ride up. She leaned down and pressed her lips onto his and one of her hands started sliding under his shirt and up his chest.

Alex apparently wasn't in the mood because he didn't kiss her back and grabbed her arm to stop her going any further.

Lexie got up and sat next to him, feeling hurt. "Do you not want me?" she asked confused.

Alex sighed and said, "Of course I do. More than you know. But I will not take advantage of you when you're drunk, I'm sorry."

Lexie pouted, "But I want to, Alex."

"No you don't," he said softly. "It's the drink talking. Just go to sleep."

"I don't want to go to sleep! I want you, Alex."

"No you don't," he said again and got up. "I'll get you your pyjamas."

She didn't answer and when Alex turned back, her clothes in hand, she was fast alseep on the top of her quilt. So he didn't disturb her, he grabbed a blanket and layed it over her. He kissed her forehead gently and walked out of her room, heading home.

* * *

><p><strong>Okay, I'm actually not really happy with this chapter. But I haven't updated in over a week so I wanted to give you guys something. This is basically just a shitty filler chapter, which I hate, but meh.<strong>

**This story is going to have about 20 chapters, including an epilogue and then there will be a sequel. I have a lot of plans for this story, especially how it's going to end and the way the sequels going to go. I've already started drafting it out.**

**Also, I realised a mistake I have made. I live in the UK, and we leave school when we're 16, but in America you leave when you're 18, right? Well I actually intended this story to be set in ATL's last year of high school, but obviously I got the ages wrong because I was thinking of the English school system. So Lexie would actually be 17-18 in this story, making Noah 19-20. So, I'm sorry about that, but it's necessary that I mention this as the fact that it's their final year is essential to this storyline.**

**Sorry for the long A/N. Next chapter will be Friday. See you then!**


	15. Chapter 14: The Dance

**I know I said that the next update would be Friday but I'm posting the next chapter today instead. Expect a new chapter nearly every day now as I'm going to try and get it finished by the end of next week. Then I'll get the sequel posted. I'm starting college in September so I want to get this story and the sequel finished before then as I won't have much time to write.**

**Again, an apology for the last chapter, I was suffering a bit of writers block during that and it was definately not the best I could have done. I also realised I've never done this:**

**Disclaimer: I do not own All Time Low, because let's be realistic, if I owned them, why would I be writing a story about them? We would be partying and having a good time.**

* * *

><p>Lexie woke up the next morning with a banging headache and no recollection of the night before. She was laying on her bed still fully dressed, with a blanket laying over her. So she must have gotten really drunk last night. Great. She got up and showered, changing into her sweatpants and tank top, having no intention of leaving the house that day.<p>

She went downstairs and took an aspirin for her headache and sat down on the couch and flicked through the channels. Then her phone started ringing. It was Alex.

"Hello?" she answered and noticed that her voice sounded rather hoarse.

"How are you feeling this morning?"

"Like shit. I don't even remember anything."

"Well the party wasn't wild or anything but you got pretty drunk. I got you home safe, though."

"Oh... thanks. I'm sorry, but I did warn you. I didn't do anything embarassing did I?" she asked nervously.

There was a pause. "Not really. You just did a lot of crazy dancing."

She laughed, "I can live with that."

"I gotta go, Lexie. I just wanted to see how you were. See you at school," he said and hung up.

"Bye," she said into the phone. That was... odd. Was he hiding something from her? She didn't dwell on it too much though and then spent the rest of her day watching movies with Noah.

* * *

><p>The next few of months went by without much drama. It was now the beginning of December and there was only a few more weeks until they broke up from school for Christmas. Alex and Lexie were still together and they had been on many many dates since their first one. Lexie felt all her feelings for him growing stronger with every minute they were together and sometimes wondered if they should take their relationship further. She didn't want to be the one to bring it up though, just thinking about it made her nervous.<p>

The band had played quite a few gigs as well and were growing very popular in Baltimore but they hadn't had the opportunity to play a show outside of Baltimore yet.

Things with Lexie's family were still pretty much the same; her dad was being distant and she rarely got to see him, but he seemed happier on the rare occasions she did. Noah had also got a girlfriend; a girl called Bethany who he met at the mall and he had been seeing her for over a month now.

On the last week of school, the principle had announced that the Christmas Dance would take place on the following Friday and that it was a formal thing. Lexie had never been to anything like this before so she was nervous about what to wear, but Kara had said they can go to the mall after school and go dress shopping. She also wasn't sure if she was going with Alex. Was it kind of an unspoken thing that they were going together because they were dating or did she have to ask him if he wanted to go with her?

She spoke all her concerns to Kara on Tuesday when they were in Starbucks at the mall.

"Well Rian asked me if I would go with him but I wasn't expecting him to, to be honest. I thought it was obvious that we would be going together. So I don't know, but if he hasn't asked you by Friday then ask him. He might think that you're going together anyway," Kara told her while sipping her coffee.

Lexie nodded then bit her lip nervously. There was something else she wanted to ask but wasn't sure how to go about it.

"What else is on your mind?" Kara asked. "You can tell me."

"Well, it's just... me and Alex have been together over 3 months now and I was wondering if it was a good time to talk to him about... well, _y'know,"_ she said, hoping that Kara would pick up what she was trying to say.

"_Oh_," Kara said, catching on. "Well, are you ready?"

"I don't know, I think I am. I kind of think that he's waiting for me to bring it up first, but I don't know how to go about it..."

"He probably is," Kara told her. "You don't necessarily have to talk to him about it, though. It could end up just being one of those moments where it just... happens."

"Yeah, I suppose so. But I'm nervous," Lexie said honestly. "I've no idea what I'm doing and Alex does... I don't know, I just feel like I'd be a dissapointment."

"Don't say that," Kara said. "I don't think you could dissapointment him, he cares about you."

Lexie nodded, not really sure what to say next, but Kara spoke again.

"I was nervous before my first time with Rian, but I was really worried over nothing. I think you'll be fine."

Lexie smiled, "Thank you."

"No problem," Kara said and grabbed Lexie's hand pulling her up. "Time to shop."

They went to many different shops, but did not find anything they wanted no matter how many dresses they tried on. Then they found a small shop that had some cheap but beautiful dresses. Kara tried on a black and gold dress, while Lexie got a purple one.

When she tried it on, she knew this was the perfect one. It had was rather simple, with halter straps and material that clung to her curves perfectly. It flowed down to the floor like a shimmering waterfall.

She stepped out of the dressing room waiting for Kara and her dress was perfect for her, too. It was also a floor length dress, but it was strapless and had gold sparkles over it.

"You look gorgeous!" Kara exclaimed.

"So do you! I am definately getting this!" Lexie said excitedly. She went back into the changing room and changed back into her clothes. After they both bought their dresses, they headed for a shoe store.

"I don't really want to wear heals," Lexie told her as she nervously tried on a pair of purple strappy heals.

"You can't wear a dress like that and not wear heels," Kara said who was trying on a pair of gold ones.

"Fine, but I'm not getting big ones," she said and eventually settled on a pair of simple purple ones, with a small heel.

They were just about ready to go when Kara said, "Do you fancy getting some underwear to match your dress?"

Lexie's eyes widened, "Um, I don't know. I wasn't planning on it..."

"Come on, it'll make Alex go crazy," she said winking.

"Fine," Lexie said sighing and let Kara drag her into Victoria's Secret.

"Get purple and black ones," Kara said. "Not just plain purple because your dress is all purple."

Lexie nodded and some underwear sets into the changing room. She didn't really like the first two sets but she rather liked the third one. The bra was black with purple lace and the panties matched.

"Are you going to show me any of these?" Kara asked through the door.

"Why do you want to see me in my underwear?"

"I can give you my opinion. I'm not a lesbian or anything," she said.

Lexie opened the changing room door and Kara's jaw dropped.

"He is going to _die,"_ Kara said laughing.

Lexie blushed and said, "I think I'll be getting them."

* * *

><p>Alex didn't ask Lexie about the dance at all and she was thinking that he wasn't going to say anything at all, but Friday at lunch he spoke to her.<p>

She had just ate and was heading down to the library when she met up with Alex. He linked arms with her and they walked down together.

"So, Miss Brandon, would you do the honour of being my date to the dance tonight?" he asked in a posh voice.

"I would love to, Mr Gaskarth," she replied imitating his accent.

"Excellent. I'm getting there with Rian so I'll meet you there. Kara's coming round to get ready at yours, right?"

"Yep. It's going to be very girly," she told him.

He pretended to shudder. "Are you going to be drinking tonight?"

"Nope. Not after last time. Besides, sneaking it into school is too much effort."

Alex laughed, "Yeah it is. I'm not going to bother either."

"Well I've got homework to do," she said gesturing to the library which they were now in front of. "Do you want to join me?"

"Ew, homework. I'll come with you but I'm not doing work," he said.

"Well what are you going to do, then?"

"Song writing. Maybe a little bit of kissing you, if you're up for it."

"Not in the library," she said in mock horror.

"Aw, you're no fun," he said grinning. She scolded him on the shoulder but laughed anyway and went into the library with him, where she actually didn't get much work done.

* * *

><p>Kara came round to Lexie's house at about 5 to begin getting ready. Noah was going to drop them off at about 7 and then he was going to pick up Bethany for their date.<p>

They spent a lot of their time chatting rather than getting ready, but they still managed it in good time. Lexie put on the underwear she had bought from Victoria's Secret and got her dress and heels on. Kara did her hair in an elegant knot at the back of her head, with a black flower pinned by it. Lexie just did her make-up as she usually did and they were ready with ten minutes to spare.

"You nervous?" Kara asked her.

Lexie nodded and said, "Alex asked me to stay at his house tonight. His parents have gone away this weekend so he's going to be alone."

Kara's eyes widened, "So you think it might happen?"

"I don't know, it seems like the right time. I'm still nervous though."

"You'll be fine, trust me," she told her and then Noah shouted them downstairs.

"Wow, you two look great," Noah said, grabbing his keys.

"So do you," Lexie said. He was wearing a suit. "Where are you going on your date?"

"We're going out for dinner... with her parents. I thought a suit might make a good impression," he said as they walked towards the car.

Lexie and Kara climbed into the back and Noah got in the front and they set off.

"You nervous?" Lexie asked.

"Incredibly. I don't usually make good first impressions," he said.

"You'll be fine," she reassured him. "In that suit, who could not like you?"

"Very funny, Lexie. But never underestimate the power of a suit," he said.

Lexie laughed, "Whatever, loser."

The car came to a stop. "We're here. I'll see you tomorow, have a nice time!"

"You too," Lexie said grinning and got out of the car.

"Thanks for the lift," Kara said and watched as Noah drove off. They walked towards the main entrance and could hear the music booming from the hall where the dance was being held.

The place had been completely transformed. It no longer looked dull and boring, but bright and vibrant. It kind of resembled a typical disco with the strobe lights. After a couple of minutes searching, they spotted Alex and Rian together and walked over to them.

Kara immediately hugged Rian and with a wink to Lexie, walked off to go dance with him. Alex was too, wearing a suit and he looked incredibly handsome.

Alex was looking at her as if he'd never seen her before. He brushed the hair out of her eyes and rested his hand on her waist. "You look absolutely beautiful, Lexie."

Feeling rather daring, she leant up to whisper in his ear. "You should see what I've got on underneath this dress." She leant back down to see Alex's eyes widening and a look of wonder on his face. With a giggle, she took his hand and lead him to the dancefloor.

They danced for a while then grabbed drinks and came to sit with Rian who was by himself.

"Where's Kara?" Lexie asked.

"Bathroom," he replied.

"Have you seen Jack anywhere?" Alex asked.

"I saw him by the food table a while ago, typically. I don't think he has a date," Rian said.

"Aw, poor Jack," Lexie said, feeling bad for him. "What about Zack?"

"He's come with a girl Katie from school I think. They're there dancing, look," Alex said pointing to them, where they were dancing in the middle of the dancefloor.

"I'm going to go find Jack," Lexie said and wandered off from their table. She found him standing by himself by the punch bowl.

"Jack, do you wanna dance?" she asked holding her hand out. He smiled and nodded and they walked to the dancefloor together.

It was a slow song playing so she put her arms around his neck and he put his on her waist.

"How come you don't have a date?" she asked.

He shrugged, "Nobody asked me and I didn't ask anybody."

"Well you looked very lonely standing over there. How come you weren't hanging with the guys?"

"I figured they've take the piss out of me for coming alone."

She looked up at him, feeling sad. "Aw, Jack. They wouldn't. And if they did, I'll kick their butts for you."

He laughed, "It's fine, really. I'll just find some people who are willing to dance with me."

"Alex will probably dance with you," she said and he laughed again, nodding in agreement.

They danced through another slow song, then 'Dance Dance' by Fall Out Boy came on and they started dancing like maniacs. Lexie was twirled so many times she found herself getting dizzy and had to go sit down. Jack started dancing with Rachel, who appeared to be having a good time.

"How's Jack doing?" Alex asked when she sat by him.

"Oh he's fine. He just seemed lonely so I offered to dance with him," she said.

"Are you up for another dance with me?" he asked holding his hand out.

"Of course," Lexie said and stood up with him.

They pretty much danced the entire night, right up to the last few slow songs. They were just swaying silently, and Lexie was resting her head on Alex's chest.

"Have you had a good time tonight?" Alex asked.

She looked up at him and smiled, "The best."

"Good," he said and leant down to kiss her. It was a very soft and gentle kiss but it seemed to speak a thousand words and Lexie felt herself becoming overcome with emotion and not really sure how to express them. What if he didn't feel the same?

He rested his forehead against hers as they swayed to the music and then very softly he whispered to her.

"I love you, Lexie," he said and her breath caught in surprise. She looked into his eyes expecting him to suddenly start laughing saying that he was only kidding, but by the look on his face, he wasn't.

"I don't know if you love me too, but damn I love you so much. You're perfect to me, Lexie and I just had to say it," he whispered.

Lexie felt lost for words, she knew she should say something but she couldn't seem to find her voice. Alex seemed to take this for a negative thing and said, "Are you going to say something? Oh man, I knew I shouldn't have said it, I've just gone and -"

She silenced him by bringing his mouth back to hers and kissing him fiercely. She pulled back from him and whispered, "I love you too, Alex."

He seemed surprised by this, "Really?"

She nodded, smiling. "Really."

He smiled broadly and kissed her again and again and again. She sighed in contement and they resumed their dancing until they noticed that most people appeared to be leaving and that it was getting late.

"We should get home," Alex said and took her hand. They said goodbye to everyone who was still there and got in a taxi to Alex's house.

When they got to Alex's house, they went upstairs and she sat on Alex's bed, taking her shoes off. Alex did the same and turned to face her, tracing the curve of her cheekbones.

"So, Lexie... we've been together about 3 months now and -" he began.

"I know what you're going to say. And I'm ready," she told him and saw surprise etched on his face.

"I don't want you to think I only said I loved you so I could sleep with you, I wouldn't do that, I -"

She placed her hand in his and cut across his speech. "I _know_, Alex. I trust you."

"That's good, then. I love you, Lexie," he whispered, shifting closer to her.

"I love you too, Alex," she whispered back and closed the distance between their lips. They shifted so that Lexie was laying down on the bed and Alex was on top of her, balancing carefully so she didn't feel all his weight.

Feeling rather brave, Lexie began working the buttons on Alex's shirt and slipped it off his chest, throwing it onto the floor. Alex's hands were underneath her, pulling down the zipper on her dress. She moved so that he could pull it off and then she felt really self concious that she was laying in front of him in her underwear.

Alex was staring at her in awe and brought his hands to her waist and began kissing down her neck. "You - are - so - beautiful," he said, pausing after each word to plant another kiss on her skin. She gasped when he bit down on her neck and she was becoming lost in the sensation of his lips.

She trailed her hands down his stomach and began working the zipper on his trousers. Getting the message, he quickly got them off and continued kissing her, working his way down her body, kissing down her stomach and back up again. Her eyelids fluttered and the way he was touching her, so gentle and caring made her want to cry. She loved him. So much.

She felt his hands pressing onto her back and realised that he must be fiddling with the hooks on her bra and blushed when he removed it completely, feeling too exposed.

"Don't be embarassed," he whispered in her ear. Taking a deep breath, she brought his face back to hers, kissing him softly to let him know that she was okay. Then the rest was history.

* * *

><p><strong>There you go! I'll probably put the next chapter up tomorow :)<strong>


	16. Chapter 15: The Introduction

Lexie woke up the next morning feeling rather confused at first, as she became aware that she was not in her own bed. Then she turned to her side and saw Alex's sleeping form and the memories of the night before came flooding to the surface of her mind.

She grinned to herself remembering everything and snuggled closer to Alex, trailing her fingers along his chest. Alex made a low groan and opened his eyes slowly, grinning when he saw her.

"Good morning," he said sleepily.

"Good morning to you too," she replied.

Alex took the hand that was laying on his chest and clasped it in his own, while his other hand wound round her body and settled on her hip.

"What time is it?" she asked him.

He leant round to look at his phone and said, "Nearly 11am."

"Wow. We slept for a long time," she said surprised.

"Well it's understandable... we had a very tiring night," he said smirking.

Lexie laughed and rested her head on Alex's chest, feeling very content with everything in the world. They layed together in silence for a few minutes, then Alex spoke.

"Hey, are you alright?" he asked her.

"Yeah, course I am," she replied, feeling confused.

"So you don't um... regret last night?" he asked nervously.

Lexie looked up at him and saw his face etched with worry. "Why would I regret it?"

"I don't know. I just thought, maybe -"

She silenced him with a quick kiss on his lips. "I don't regret it. Not one bit."

Alex let out a long breath and smiled, "Okay. It's all good then."

"It is. And Alex?"

"Yeah?"

"I love you."

He smiled, "I love you, too."

"This is such a corny moment," Lexie pointed out.

Alex chuckled, "I know. I'll get up and make some breakfast."

"Okay," she said and stretched out her arms, yawning. Alex walked out of the room in just his boxers and Lexie grabbed her underwear from the floor, putting them back on. Then deciding that she didn't want to go downstairs in just her underwear, she grabbed one of Alex's t-shirts and put that on as well.

She went downstairs and sat in the kitchen where Alex was getting stuff out of the cupboard.

"I'll make pancakes, I'm in a good mood," Alex said as he put the pan on the stove.

"I wonder why," Lexie said sarcastically and Alex just laughed. Then when Alex had her back to her, Lexie gasped and blushed in embrassment. Then giggled slightly.

"What?" he asked, turning around confused.

"Your back. I uh - made a mark," she said, still giggling. Alex walked over to the nearest mirror and twisted so that he could see his back. All over his back were red lines... or scratches.

Alex turned around shocked. "You mauled me!" he said in horror.

"Yeah, well you bit me," she said gesturing to multiple purple marks along her neck and shoulder. "And these will be harder to cover."

"Touche," Alex said returning to the stove. "Call it even?"

"Absolutely not," she said. "But if these pancakes are any good, then yes."

"Well I had better get cooking then, hadn't I?"

Alex made them a stack of pancakes each which Lexie had to grudgingly admit... they were delicious.

"Fine, we're even," she said when she'd finished.

"Excellent," Alex said with a grin. "So what do you want to do today?"

"I don't know. Wanna watch some movies?"

"Sure thing. I'll go get a blanket or something and you can go pick," he said and went upstairs. Lexie went into the living room and looked through all the DVD's. She was still deciding when Alex came back downstairs with his quilt.

"You decided?" he asked standing behind her. He wrapped his arms around her waist and rested his head on her shoulder.

"Hmm, I was thinking an animated movie. Is that lame?"

"Absolutely not. How about Monsters Inc.?" he asked.

"Excellent choice," she said and got the DVD from the shelf and put it in the DVD player while Alex sat on the couch.

Alex layed down on his side and held his arms out to her. She layed down infront of him and he put his arms around her, pulling her closer to him and rested his head on her shoulder. Lexie pulled the blanket over them and started the film.

"I could get used to this," Alex said in her ear.

"Mm, me too," she replied.

They spent the rest of the day watching movies on the couch, taking breaks for food, until Lexie decided that she should probably get back home. She got dressed, attempted to tame her hair but gave up and just shoved it into a ponytail and got her things in her bag, ready to go.

Alex was in the kitchen, getting a drink from the fridge and turned around when she came in.

"Aren't you going to be alone tonight?" she asked.

"Nah," Alex said. "Jack's coming over in about an hour."

"So you're replacing me with Jack?" she asked in a voice of mock horror.

"Yes, I'm sorry. It's him I'm truly in love with," he said with fake sadness.

"To be honest, it wouldn't surprise me if you and Jack were secretly gay together," she said.

Alex shrugged, "We're not gay, just very... close."

Lexie laughed, "If you say so."

"You coming to band practice tomorow?"

"Sure, where and when?"

"Rian's house, 2 o'clock," he told her.

"Okay, I'll be there. But right now, I've got to go," she said.

Alex stood closer to her and pressed his lips lightly to hers. "I'll see you tomorow."

"Mm, thanks for a fantastic night," she said with a cheeky grin.

"Oh, it was my pleasure," he replied, winking.

Lexie giggled, "Bye, Alex. Have a fun night with Jack!"

"Oh, I will!" he said and Lexie set off home.

* * *

><p>When Lexie got home, Noah was in the kitchen with a bag of food.<p>

"I got us Chinese takeout," he said, beginning to dish some food out on one of the plates.

"Ooh, yum," she said, putting her back down on the floor. She walked into the kitchen and began getting some food out. She paused when she sensed Noah was looking at her, as if sensing something. _Oh my god, he knows_, she thought in horror.

"You seem different," he finally said, as he grabbed the cutlery from the drawers.

"Do I?" she asked alarmed.

"Yeah," he said and looked at her again, then sighed. "Don't worry, I won't ask. But just tell Alex that if he does anything to hurt you then it will be the last thing he will ever do."

"I'll be sure to tell him that," she said with a nervous chuckle.

* * *

><p>Lexie went to All Time Low's band practice the next day. She first walked in and Jack couldn't stop laughing.<p>

"What's so funny?" she asked feeling self concious.

"Lexie's not a virgin," he said in a sing-song voice. Zack and Rian looked surprised and turned their gazes to her, waiting for her to say something. Instead, she turned to Alex.

"You told him?"

He held his hands up in defense, "He figured it out. He saw the scratches on my back."

"You left scratches on his back?" Rian asked raising his eyebrows. "Nice. I didn't think you had it in you."

Lexie put her head in her hands in embarasment, blushing a deep red. "Please stop," she muttered.

"Yeah guys, leave my girlfriend alone," Alex said, hitting Jack on the shoulder.

But Jack didn't stop. "What was it like?"

"I'm not telling you anything!" she said and went to sit down in her usual spot.

"Well I'm guessing it was either really bad or really good. Those scratches could be caused by either experience," Jack said.

"Jack, I am not telling you anything," she repeated.

"Fine. Alex will only tell me later," he said, picking up his guitar.

"I hate you all," Lexie muttered.

"Hey, I didn't say anything!" Zack said.

"Okay, I only like Zack at this moment in time," she amended. Zack grinned and picked up his bass.

The guys were just about to start when Matt came into the room.

"Guys, I have some news. You have a gig this Thursday, headlining a one off show at the UMBC Fieldhouse," he said.

"Woah, seriously? This is fucking awesome!" Alex exclaimed.

All the guys started talking in excitement about the songs they could play, when Matt said, "You only have a few days to practice for this. This show is a big deal, don't mess it up."

They all suddenly turned serious and played without much messing around. After they had finished, Alex came over and sat with Lexie.

"You coming to the show on Thursday?" he asked.

"Definately," she said.

Alex smiled then said. "I also wanted to ask you something else. My mom was wondering if you would want to come round for dinner Tuesday night. My parents want to meet you properly."

Her eyes widened in surprise, "Really? Oh, well, sure I'll go... I guess."

"You don't have to be nervous, they'll love you," he said.

"I sure hope so," she muttered.

"Don't worry about dress code or anything either, just wear jeans or something. It doesn't matter."

"Okay. What time?"

"6 o'clock," he said and took her hand pulling her off the sofa. They said goodbye to the guys and set off for home. Wow. Meeting parents. This was serious.

* * *

><p>Lexie walked round to Alex's house on Tuesday evening feeling incredibly nervous. She'd talked to his mom very briefly before, but she had never met his dad. And this was an official meeting thing. What if they didn't like her?<p>

She reached his house and knocked on the door, contemplating whether running back home would be a good idea when Alex answered the door.

"Hey," he said, gesturing for her to come in.

"You look terrified," he said as he closed the door behind him.

"I am," she said truthfully.

"Don't be," he whispered, standing closer to her as he rested his hands on her waist. "It'll be fine, trust me. My parents aren't scary."

"But what if they don't like me?" she whispered back.

"How could they not?"

Lexie laughed nervously, "You're too kind."

"I'm your boyfriend, I'm supposed to be," he said and her heart fluttered. It still made her feel all warm and fuzzy inside to here him say that. He leant down and kissed her forehead. "Come on, they're in the kitchen."

He took her hand and lead her into the kitchen where his mom was hovering over the stove and his dad was sitting at the table reading through a newspaper.

They both looked up when they walked in and his mom smiled, "It's nice to see you again, Lexie."

"You too, Mrs Gaskarth," she replied.

"Just call me Isobel, dear," she said kindly and Lexie just nodded, smiling sheepishly.

"Evening, Lexie," his dad said. "I'm Peter."

"Hi, Peter," she said. _Man, I'm so socially awkward,_ she thought to herself and saw Alex smiling slightly next to her.

Lexie took a seat next to Alex who started chatting with his dad about football, so Lexie kind of tuned out from that conversation.

"I'm not making anything special for dinner, really," Isobel said. "I'm just cooking bolognese. You like it, right?"

"Oh, yes. It's one of my favourite meals actually," Lexie replied, which was true.

Isobel smiled kindly at her and then began dishing out the plates. She served dinner and they ate, keeping up casual conversation.

"What do you think to Alex's band?" Peter asked her.

"I think they're fantastic," she said smiling.

"Me and Lexie pretty much like the same sort of music," Alex said.

"Are you going to their show on Thursday?" Peter asked.

"Yeah, I'll definately be there," she said.

"So, Lexie, tell us about yourself," Isobel prompted.

"Um, okay," she said, swallowing the food she had in her mouth. "I moved here from London with my dad and my brother Noah. Um, my favourite band is Blink 182 and when I leave school I hope to go into journalism. I don't really know what else to say..." she said, trailing off.

"What about your mother?" Isobel asked and saw Alex flash her a warning look.

"She died when I was 12," Lexie said.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Isobel said.

"It's fine, you didn't know," Lexie replied.

"Well we've heard a lot of things about you," Isobel said.

"You have?" Lexie asked in surprise.

"Yes, Alex rarely shuts up about you. All we hear from him talk about lately is you or the band," she said, smiling.

She could see Alex blushing next to her and had to stiffle a giggle. "Well I hope what he's been saying hasn't been bad," she said.

"Not at all," Isobel said.

The conversation then turned to stuff about All Time Low and then turned back to Lexie. Peter had just asked what her dad did for a living when she felt Alex's hand rest on her knee. She looked at him from the corner of her eye but he was sitting there innocently, waiting for her to speak.

"He's a lawyer," she said. "Well he was back in England, but he got promoted to running the courts and everything over here in Baltimore."

Alex's hand started moving more up her thigh, his fingers trailing underneath her dress on her bare legs. She mentally scolded herself for wearing a dress rather than jeans, but she thought it might make a better impression.

"What about your brother?" Isobel asked.

Lexie put both of her hands under the table and tried to push Alex's hand off her leg, but he was stronger. His parents appeared to not have noticed anything, but why was he doing this now? Infront of his parents!

"He doesn't really have a big job. He works in the local estate agents, which he hates but he said it pays well," she replied with a nervous chuckle, still trying to pry Alex's hand from her thigh.

"Well I suppose that's all that matters," Isobel replied, chuckling. "Is there a career he's trying to pursue while working there?"

"I don't actually know. I think he's wanting to go to university, well college and study English. But he hasn't got round to doing anything about it really," Lexie said, while still desperately trying to push Alex's hand back but it was getting higher. He was just sitting there looking innocent though, as if he didn't have his hand under her dress.

"Well I suppose it's all a matter of time and convinience," Isobel said and Lexie nodded. Then she felt Alex's hand reach her underwear and she felt his fingers trailing underneath the material that was over her hip. She squealed and stood up quickly, then saw the look of surprise on his parents faces.

"Ah, um, sorry. Can I use your bathroom?" she asked.

Isobel nodded, "It's just upstairs, dear."

Lexie quickly hurried out of the room and dashed into the bathroom. She didn't actually need the toilet, she just needed an excuse for her sudden outburst. What was Alex playing at? She regained her composure back and went back into the kitchen where it was just Isobel in there, and she was putting the plates in the sink.

"The boys have gone to watch football," she told her.

"Typical," Lexie said laughing. "Here, I'll help you with this."

"You don't have to, dear. I can manage," Isobel said.

"No, it's fine, honestly," she said and helped clear the table.

There was silence then Isobel said, "He really likes you, y'know. I've never seen him like this with anyone before."

Lexie didn't have a clue what to say to that, but she didn't have to, as Isobel continued. "I just wanted to thank you. He's different with you and you really helped him with Daniel. I never thought he would finish that song and he probably wouldn't if it wasn't for you."

"Oh, it was nothing, I-" Lexie began.

"Stop being modest," Isobel told her. "You've caused a great change in him and I cannot thank you enough for it."

"You don't have to thank me for anything," Lexie said. "I just -"

"Didn't I just tell you to stop being modest?" Isobel said with a laugh. "I never thought I'd see the day when somebody could cope with my Alex."

"Well it's not easy," Lexie said.

"Believe me, I know," Isobel said, then placed the last plate in the sink. "I can do this myself, love. Go in the room with them."

"If you're sure. Thank you, Mrs Gaskarth. It was a wonderful dinner," Lexie told her.

"It was my pleasure," she said smiling.

Lexie went out of the kitchen into the hall, where Alex was waiting for her. "C'mon," he said and pulled her upstairs into his room.

"I told you it wouldn't be that bad," Alex said, sitting on his bed.

"I know, but what were you touching me like that for under the table?"

Alex laughed, "I thought it was funny, you looked so freaked out. My parents didn't notice."

"Maybe not, but they could have. I don't want them thinking I'm a slut or anything," she said.

"I think that _me_ touching _you_ does not make you a slut. Besides, my mom likes you," he told her.

"Yeah, I know. She was just talking to me in the kitchen," she said.

"Mm, I told you they would love you," he said and shifted closer to her. He pushed her down so she was laying down and straddled her hips.

"What are you doing?" she asked in alarm.

"Getting comfortable," he replied innocently and leant down towards her, and began kissing up her neck.

"Alex," she muttered. "Your parents are downstairs."

"I know," he said cheekily. "Kinda makes it hotter knowing we could be caught at any moment, doesn't it?"

"No!" she said and flipped him over so that she was straddling him.

"I like this position better," he said, winking. "I have a great view."

"You're such a pervert," she said, hitting him on the chest playfully.

"You love it," he said grinning.

Lexie shook her head laughing and leaned down to give him a quick kiss on the lips and got off him. "I think I need to be getting home."

Alex got up and wrapped his arms around her. "Mm, okay. I'll get my dad to drop you off if you want?"

"You don't have to, I can walk," she said.

"Nah, it's no trouble," he said and kissed her forehead. They walked downstairs hand in hand, into the living room where his parents were now watching TV.

"Dad, would you mind dropping Lexie off home?" he asked.

"Of course not, I'll get my keys," he said.

Lexie looked at Isobel and saw her smiling fondly at them, her eyes glancing to their clasped hands. "Thank you for having me over," Lexie said.

"It was no trouble at all," Isobel said.

"Goodbye, then," Lexie said and followed Alex out into the hall.

"I'll see you tomorow," Alex said, kissing her hard on the mouth, leaving her a bit short of breath.

She just nodded, breathless and smiling. Alex laughed and Lexie went outside and got in the car. Meeting his parents really wasn't that bad.

* * *

><p><strong>Next chapter will either be Saturday or Sunday :)<strong>


	17. Chapter 16: The Offer

On Thursday night, Lexie met Kara and they went to the venue for All Time Low's big show. Lexie was nervous for them. If they did well tonight, they might even get noticed by a record label.

They were let in backstage by Matt and went to go sit with them before they went into the actual venue, where they were going to stand at the barriers. Matt said they could watch from sidestage, but Lexie and Kara both decided that they wanted to stand in the audience.

Lexie gave Alex a comforting hug before they went to go stand at the barriers.

"You'll be fantastic," she reassured him.

"I hope so," he said with a shaky voice. "Matt told me that there's a couple of label guys here. This could be it, Lexie. We could get signed!"

"I'm so proud of you guys," she said. Alex cupped her face in his hands and touched his lips to hers. It was only meant to be a soft kiss, but Lexie kissed him back harder, winding her fingers in his hair. He moaned softly and wrapped his arms around her waist, holding her so tight that she was almost lifted off the floor.

A throat cleared from somewhere in the room and Alex released his hold on her, slightly breathless.

"Well that was a good warm up," he said.

Lexie laughed, "Good luck." She kissed him once more and followed Kara out of the room.

They took their places at the front of the stage and were there alone for another 5 minutes before everybody else was allowed in. The place filled up quickly and even though she couldn't see properly as she was squished, Lexie was sure the room was almost full. Her and Kara had to hold hands during the support act to make sure they were not separated as the amount of pushing was crazy. Even more when All Time Low came on.

This was by far the biggest crowd they'd played to and Lexie had no idea how Matt managed to get them this gig, but she was glad he did. They were amazing. By the end of it, Lexie was pretty sweaty and felt really disgusting, but she didn't care. When the room was clear enough for them to move, they went backstage to wait for them.

Jack, Rian and Zack came through and both Lexie and Kara hugged them all, congratulating them. Alex joined them 5 minutes later and when Lexie asked him where he'd been, he just said "I'll tell you later."

They all stayed in the venue for about another hour, talking about the show and what this could mean for the band if a record label noticed them. Alex stayed reasonably quiet throughout that time, but she didn't ask why. She figured he would tell her eventually.

Then they realised it was getting late and they should head home. Alex caught up with her before she left.

"Are you doing anything tomorow?" he asked.

"Nope. Why, do you wanna hang out or something?"

"Yeah, I was wondering if I could come round to yours or something," he said.

"Sure, come round about 12."

"See you tomorow," he said, kissing her forehead.

* * *

><p>Alex came round to Lexie's the next day and they went upstairs, intending to watch some movies, but Alex took her hands and sat her on the bed next to him.<p>

"I need to tell you something," he said seriously.

"O-_kay_," she replied, feeling nervous. He was being very odd... just like he was yesterday after the show. A million bad thoughts zoomed through her mind, most of them revolving around one thing; he was breaking up with her.

"After the show yesterday, this guy pulled me aside to talk to me," he began, then paused as if he was trying to find the right words. "He offered us a record deal. The chance to record an EP and an album and he even said we could go on Warped Tour next year."

"Oh my god!" Lexie yelled excited. That was not what she had been expecting at all. By the way he was acting, it was almost as if he didn't want it... "What did you tell him?"

"I told him that I would talk to the band about it first and we'd let him know by next week. I haven't actually told them yet, I wanted to let you know first."

"Why? I would have thought the band knowing would be more important than me knowing..." she said, not really understanding.

"Because I wanted to make sure you were going to be okay with this," he told her.

"Well why wouldn't I be? Your dreams are coming true."

"Lexie, being in a band means not spending a lot of time at home. Recording is going to take up a _lot_ of time and on tour, we'll be away for months and I don't know if I could leave you for that long."

She opened and closed her mouth a couple times, trying to find the right words. He was seriously considering not taking the offer... for her?

"I don't care what you say, you're taking that offer. Don't worry about me. We could always try and keep up a long distance relationship."

Alex shook his head, "You're misunderstanding me. I guess I'm not saying this right. What I'm trying to say is; we could be going on Warped Tour and recording an album, which is a huge thing for us, I can't even put into words what it means. But at the same time, I don't want to leave you behind, so what I'm asking is whether you'd consider coming out on tour with us?"

She was taken aback at first, then she smiled. "That's what you've been so nervous about since yesterday?"

"Well... yeah," he admitted.

"Of course I'll come out on tour with you! I'll have to make sure it's okay with my dad which might take a lot of persuading, but I'll do whatever it takes. Did you think I'd say no?"

He looked embarassed, "I just thought you might not want the trouble of having a boyfriend who's in a band, considering any alone time would be rare."

"I don't care about that. I'm not going to let you ruin your dreams because of how you think I might feel about it all. You're accepting the offer, no excuses."

"So you'll see if you can come on tour with us?"

"Yes, I'll do whatever it takes," she told him.

Alex smiled and he looked so unbelievably happy that it made her heart melt, especially as it was because of her that he was feeling like this. Well not all because of her... but partly.

"Are we alone?" he asked quietly.

She nodded. "My dad's at work and Noah's at Bethany's."

Alex's eyes glinted with mischief and put his hands on Lexie's waist. He very slowly rolled her over so that she was laying on her back, with him hovering over her. She ran her hands up along his chest and wrapped them around his neck as he pressed his lips onto hers.

"Don't scratch the hell out of my back this time, please," he murmured against her lips.

"As long as you don't bite me," she said.

He moaned quietly, "I can't really help it."

"And I can't help my nails digging into your back, either," she muttered.

"You're cheeky," he said grinning.

Lexie just laughed and pulled on the hem of his shirt, lifting it over his head. It was quickly discarded onto the floor, as was her shirt as well. Alex kissed her along her hip, then up her stomach, across her chest and up her neck. Sure enough, he bit down on her neck and she gasped in surprise.

"You're going to pay for that," she muttered.

"Mm, I hope so."

She giggled and pulled his mouth back to hers, silencing anymore conversation. She flipped him over so that she was laying on top of him and kissed him fiercely. She felt his hands working the zipper on her jeans and they quickly joined her shirt on the floor.

As Alex moved so that he was above her again, she heard a faint noise coming from downstairs but didn't dwell on it. All her energy was focused on kissing Alex and right now, nothing else mattered.

Lexie slid her hands into the waistband of Alex's jeans, working on un-doing his belt and he moaned into her mouth, hands holding her even tighter. As she finished un-doing his belt, she felt Alex's hands press onto her back, trying to undo the hooks on her bra.

She tried getting his jeans off quicker but then -

"Hey Lexie, have you seen -" Noahs' voice sounded in her room as he opened the door, but stopped talking abruptly when he witnessed what was going on infront of him.

Lexie squealed and pushed Alex off her who rolled onto the floor with a thud, then quickly grabbed something to cover herself up as she was laying there in her underwear. She looked to her side where Alex was rubbing his head, then back at Noah who looked like he was deciding whether to be angry or disgusted.

"Noah, please, it's not what -" she began.

"Don't fucking say it's not what it looks like, because it's pretty obvious what's going on," he spat.

"Well we thought you'd be out longer and you could have knocked!"

"I did! But you were obviously too... pre-occupied to notice," he said, then turned his gaze on Alex who looked like he would very much like to turn invisible. "And you. What do you think you were doing to my sister?"

"Noah please, just -" she tried to say.

"I'm waiting for an answer," he said as if Lexie didn't speak.

Alex said nothing, but stood up very slowly and walked across the room, picking his shirt up from the floor. Then he turned and climbed out of her window which was left wide open. Lexie jumped off her bed, ignoring the fact that she was only in her underwear to see Alex landing on the floor.

She heard him mutter, "Fuck" as he straightened himself up and put his shirt back on. Lexie turned around as she heard movement behind her and saw Noah running out of the room and she heard him running down the stairs.

Alex apparently heard too and he ran as quickly as he could, with Noah shortly behind him. Lexie saw Alex run into Rian's house and Noah stopped chasing him, turning back round and heading for the house.

Lexie quickly got dressed again and went downstairs where Noah came back in looking furious. She suddenly felt incredibly embarassed at Noah walking in on them, but could not find any words to redeem herself.

"You're lucky it was me and not dad who walked in on you," he said.

She said nothing, she didn't think anything she would say would make the situation any better.

"Incase you were wondering, no I am not going to ground you or anything and I won't tell dad... but you know that I want to kill Alex for touching you like that, right?"

"It's not like he was forcing me or -" she started to say but Noah waved his hand to tell her to stop.

"I don't want to know. I'm trying to get rid of that mental image, thank you."

There was an awkward silence, then she said, "I'm sorry."

Noah shook his head, sighing. "You don't have to apologize. You're a teenager... you have a boyfriend. It's expected. I just wish I didn't have to witness that."

"Why did you chase Alex down the street?" she asked.

"Because I wanted to strangle him," he said.

"You're not going to do anything to him, are you?" she asked nervously.

"No, of course not. But I'll be watching him very cautiously," he replied.

The conversation ended as Noah went upstairs and Lexie figured that now wouldn't be a good time to ask him about Warped Tour, so she rang Alex.

"Lexie? I thought your brother would have murdered you already," he said when he answered.

"Nope, he kinda wanted to kill you though," she told him.

"Yeah I know. He chased me down the street. I ran into Rian's house for refuge."

Lexie laughed, "That must have been confusing for him."

"It was and then he wouldn't stop laughing when I told him what happened... dick."

"Well the lucky thing is that Noah's not mad, he just said and I quote "I'll be watching him very cautiously."

There was a pause, "I'll make sure to wear a suit of armour next time I'm at your house so he can't hurt me."

She laughed, "He won't. I promise. I'm just completely embarassed that he walked in on us."

"Yeah... me too. Next time we're at yours and about to have sex, please make sure that your dad and brother are definately out."

"Oh don't worry, I will. I'm not risking that happening again," she said. "Are you going to tell the guys about the record deal?"

"Yeah, I've asked my mom to call everybody up and we're having a meeting about it tonight," he said.

"Okay. I didn't ask Noah about the tour... I figured I should wait a while seeing as he's probably still mentally scarred."

Alex laughed, "Yeah, that's a good idea. Look, I gotta go, I'll call you tomorow."

"Okay, I love you," she said.

"I love you, too," he replied and hung up.

* * *

><p><strong>I confess I didn't think of the whole 'brother walking in on them' thing. If you've seen the classic Jalex interview where Jack and Alex are shirtless in bed together drinking wine and answering questions, you will realise that I got the idea from that. In that interview Alex said that when he was with his girlfriend, her brother walked in on them and he chased him down the street. I just decided to adapt that into this story because I thought it was funny :)<strong>

**Next chapter will be Tuesday!**


	18. Chapter 17: The Call

**Hi, sorry this chapter is late. I don't really have an excuse for not doing this Tuesday, because I simply forgot about it. So here it is now! Oh, I know that ATL didn't go on Warped Tour until 2007, but for the sake of this story, I'm saying that they have.**

* * *

><p>All Time Low got their record deal. After the band and all their family had a meeting, they called the guy who spoke to Alex and accepted the offer. For the past two months, they had been in the studio recording. They already had a bunch of songs written, so it was just a matter of deciding which ones were making it onto the EP and album and then actually digitally recording them. They were going on Warped Tour in the summer and Lexie managed to pursuade her dad to let her go. It wasn't a nice conversation though.<p>

"I am not letting you drive around the country with a bunch of boys. They're all bad influences!" he said.

"They are not! They're my friends and they wouldn't do anything to hurt me. It's not like I'm missing any school for it either!" she argued.

"No, it's not happening. You are not going," he said angrily.

"Why?" she shouted. "It's not as if you see me much anyway. You're always out or locked in your room, so it won't make a difference where I am, will it? At least I'll be happy where I'm going."

He looked at her with narrowed eyes, "You just crossed a line."

"I'm speaking the truth and you know I am. Noah said he's fine with me going, so I don't see why you're making such a big deal out of it. It's not like you care what happens to me, otherwise you would have been around more."

"I've had enough of this. Shut up and go to your room, Lexie," he said, clearly livid. She scoffed, but did as she was told anyway. It's not as if going to her room was a punishment, she had all her things in there.

Noah came to talk to her later that day and promised that he would change dad's mind. Which he did. He later came back and apologized for shouting at her and said that she can go on Warped Tour.

The months leading up to Warped Tour had just been the same as usual. School. Band practice. Dates with Alex. Then came the day before they were leaving for tour and Lexie began getting stressed out about her packing. She had no idea how much she would need to bring and after a lot of stressing out and help from Noah, she had a suitcase full of everything she needed.

They set off the next morning at 5am, much to everyone's annoyance. Lexie didn't bother making an effort with her appearance that early in the morning. She simply tied her hair up into a ponytail, and wore her jogging bottoms and a hoodie. No make-up either. She intended on sleeping during the journey.

They had to travel in a van and they were going to be getting their bus when they arrived at the venue for the first date of the tour, which was Dallas.

They were on the road for a couple of hours and Lexie and Alex slept next to each other. She was curled into him, awkwardly being that it was a tight space, with her head resting on his shoulder, and he rested his head on top of hers.

They arrived at the venue before noon and they all hurried to get onto their tour bus and typically, there was a fight over the bunks.

Lexie immediately jumped into the top one on the right hand side, "I claim this one!"

"Dammit, I wanted that one!" Alex said and climbed in the one opposite.

"Well we can always share," she said, wiggling her eyebrows.

"Mm, I may have to hold you up on that," he said laying down in his bunk.

"Guys, no sex on the bus!" Matt called from the back lounge.

"Just because you won't be getting any!" Alex called back.

"Fuck you, Alex!" he yelled and Alex just laughed.

"He's jealous," he said with a wink.

* * *

><p>After placing her case on her bunk, Lexie went to sit with Rian in the front lounge.<p>

"Why isn't Kara coming out on tour?" Lexie asked.

"She couldn't get the time off work," Rian said. "She has a couple days off next week though, so she's going to come down and see us."

"You miss her, don't you?"

"I saw her yesterday," he reminded her.

"I know, but you're going to be away from her a lot being in a band," she said.

"Well then isn't that the same for you and Alex?"

"Yeah, it is," she said. "I'm not going to be able to come out on every tour you guys go on. We're going to be apart a lot."

Rian looked at her with sadness in his eyes. "Yeah, I miss her. I sometimes think she might not want a relationship like this. We'll be away from each other too much.

"Hey, if you guys love each other, it will work," she reassured him.

He nodded, "Are you scared about your relationship with Alex?"

She hesitated at first, then nodded. "It's not that I don't trust him, but being in a band means the general hoard of band sluts and I get worried..." she trailed off.

"I don't think Alex would do that to you," he said.

"But-" she began saying, but was interrupted.

"Lexie, can I talk to you for a minute?" It was Alex. She nodded and followed him off the bus, where they sat on a bench nearby.

"I heard what you were saying to Rian," he began. "I wouldn't cheat on you, Lexie."

"I believe that you wouldn't, I trust you. It's just, I don't know, there might be a point where you just get too tempted, you might be drunk at a party or whatever. There are so many prettier girls than me out there and I don't know, I'm rambling," she said, looking down in embarassment.

Alex sighed and pulled her face up gently so she had to look at him. "When are you going to get this through your head? You're beautiful, Lexie. No other girls can compare."

"But what if there's a party and you get drunk, there's going to be girls all over you!"

"Are you jealous?" he asked, smirking. She hid her face again, embarassed.

He took her hand, rubbing circles into her skin. "I told you a long time ago that I basically screwed over my ex-girlfriend Lisa. I cheated on her. I saw the consequences of what that does to a relationship. I could never do that to you."

She looked up at him, "Promise?"

"Promise," he said, then stood up, pulling on her arm so she got up too. "Now come on, we have to go to soundcheck."

* * *

><p>Warped Tour was amazing. They were now into their second week and Lexie was absolutely loving it. The band were doing amazing every day on stage and were gaining more and more fans. There were parties nearly every night on different bands buses, which she usually went to though she avoided drinking too much.<p>

She didn't get to see much of Alex during the day as he was always so busy with band stuff, so she usually helped Vinny with merch. But after their set, he always came to hang with her on the bus and they'd even been on a couple of dates. It wasn't much, but they went out for dinner on the third day of tour and a couple nights later, they simply went for a walk down the beach for some private time and layed under the stars.

Right now, all the band with Matt were sitting in the back lounge watching Home Alone. Alex was laying down with his head in Lexie's lap and his feet resting on Rian. Lexie was absent-mindly running her fingers through his soft hair, when she heard her phone ring.

"Alex, you'll have to move your head so I can answer this," she said.

"I don't want to, you're too comfy," he said.

"_Alex," _she pleaded.

"Guys, shut up, we're trying to watch a movie," Jack said.

Alex sighed and sat up, letting Lexie free. She pulled her phone out of her jeans pocket and walked into the front lounge to answer it. It was Noah.

"Hey, what's up?" she said.

"Lexie, you need to come home," he said. It sounded like he had been crying.

"Why? What's happened? Is everyone okay?" she asked, suddenly worried.

"I don't really want to explain over the phone, I need you to get on the next plane back to Baltimore, please," he said urgently, putting emphasis on the 'please.'

"But, I - okay. I'll check the airline website now," she said, rummaging around for her laptop.

She stayed on the phone to him as she looked on the internet for the next flight back home. She must have been in the lounge a while because Alex came in.

"What are you-?" he started to ask but she shushed him with a motion of her hand.

He came and sat next to her, then looked at her in shock when he saw what she was looking at on the internet.

"Okay, there's one at 8 o'clock tonight," she said. "That's the earliest one they've got."

"That will have to do," he said. "Use the credit card I gave you to pay for the flight."

She nodded, then realised that he couldn't see her. "Okay, I'll go pack in a minute. But Noah, can you please just tell me what's happened?"

"You wouldn't want to hear it over the phone," he said.

She was growing more and more worried. A thousand terrible ideas were running through her mind and she couldn't get rid of them.

"Okay, I have to go then. I'll see you later," she said, tears now welling in her eyes.

"Bye," he said and hung up.

She closed her laptop and got up to go to her bunk to pack her things, but Alex grabbed her arm and stopped her.

"What's going on? Why are you crying?" he asked.

"I don't even fucking know!" she yelled and started sobbing. Alex wrapped his arms around her, stroking her hair as she sobbed into his chest.

When she calmed down, she became aware that now everybody on the bus was watching her in concern.

"Guys, can you just give us a minute, please?" Alex asked, which Lexie was incredibly grateful for. She heard the sound of footsteps as everybody moved back into the backlounge and she stepped back from Alex to look at him.

"It was Noah on the phone. He wouldn't tell me what's happened, just that I need to get on the next flight home as soon as possible," she told him and saw his eyes grow full of concern and sadness. "I don't know what's going on, but he sounded like he had been crying and I'm so fucking worried."

"Why didn't he tell you?"

"He said that it's not something I would want to hear over the phone, which only makes me more fucking terrified about what's happened," she said, tears welling up again.

"Hey, shush, don't cry," Alex said, hugging her again. "It might not be as bad as you think."

"I sure fucking hope so," she muttered and became aware that she swears a lot when she's upset. Odd. She pulled away from him again. "Alex, I need to go pack."

He nodded, "Do you want me to tell the guys what's happening?"

She paused then said, "Yeah. They'll only find out anyway."

Alex went into the backlounge and Lexie went to her bunk and began gathering all her things and throwing them into her suitcase. Alex came back 5 minutes later and helped her get all her things together. She stayed sitting in her bunk for the rest of the day, waiting for the time when she could leave to go to the airport.

At half past 6, she got her suitcase down ready to head for the car, where Matt said he would drive her to the airport. Alex was coming with her too.

She hugged everyone, saying goodbye but promising that she would come back as soon as she could and then got in the car, leaving Warped Tour. Alex held her hand on the way to the airport, but nobody spoke. She was too consumed with worry about what could have happened.

When they arrived, she silently walked with Alex to the check in terminal where she payed for flight with the credit card Noah had given her and checked her case in, only leaving her with her small bag to take onto the flight.

She hugged Alex tightly, never wanting to let go. He seemed to be thinking the same thing as well, and they were standing there in the airport in an embrace for a while. She felt tears roll down her cheek and looking up, she saw that Alex had tears in his eyes too.

"Call me as soon as you land, okay?" he said.

"I promise," she said and stood on her toes to lock her lips with his. It was only a gentle kiss, but she wished that she didn't have to stop. When she pulled away, Alex only held her tighter and kissed her again with more force. She sighed in contentment, but also in sadness.

"Alex, I have to go. My flight-" she said, but Alex kissed her again, silencing her words.

When he finally let her breath, she reached up to touch his face. "I love you," she told him.

"I love you, too. So much," he replied and gently pressed his lips to her forehead.

"I have to go," she murmured, kissing his lips once more, quickly. He nodded solemly and she turned away from him, going further into the airport, where she sat waiting for her flight to be called.

The flight was only about an hour, and she spent it with her headphones in, trying to drown out all the negative thoughts that were going through her head. When they landed, she waited to get her case, then walked out of the airport into the familiar land of Baltimore. She called a cab, then while she was waiting, she called Alex.

"Hey, are you okay?" he asked nervously.

"Yeah, I've just got out of the airport and I'm waiting for a cab to get home," she said.

"Everyone is worried about you, y'know," he told her.

"I'll be fine. I'm worried about what I'm about to find out," she said.

"Whatever it is, you know I'll be here for you, right? No matter what."

She held back her tears, "I know, thank you."

"I love you, Lexie," he whispered.

"I love you, too," she said and saw her taxi pull up. "I have to go, my cab is here."

"Okay. Call me when you can."

"I will. Bye," she said and hung up, then got into the car. When the car arrived outside her house, she payed the driver, got her suitcase out and nervously walked up to her front door. She walked in, leaving her suitcase in the hall and found Noah sitting alone in the kitchen.

She quickly walked over to him, sitting in the seat next to him. "What's happened?"

"It's dad," he said. "He's dead."

* * *

><p><strong>Yep, it's a cliffhanger. Also, this is the last chapter before the epilogue, which I think I'll post tomorow. Reviews?<strong>


	19. Epilogue

The world went out of focus, the room appeared to be spinning. This couldn't be happening. She had already lost her mother, she couldn't lose her father as well. It couldn't be true. There must be some kind of mistake. These thoughts whirled through Lexie's mind as she tried to make sense of what Noah had just told her. She was so lost in her thoughts that it took her a while to notice that Noah was trying to talk to her.

"Lexie, please just-" he began.

"How did it happen?" she interupted.

She heard him take a deep breath, then he spoke. "It was an accident. He got himself blind drunk. He had been drinking in his room all day, I found the bottles and I think he just lost his footing and fell down the stairs. I came home from Bethany's and found him at the bottom of the stairs. I thought he was just unconcious... but there was no pulse."

She put her head in her hands in horror, tears starting to spill from her eyes. "When?" she breathed.

"This morning," he said quietly.

Lexie choked on her tears, finding it difficult to breath. Noah wrapped his arms around her body and sat her on his lap, like he used to do when she was younger. He let her cry it out, while trying not to cry himself, trying to keep it together. He was the head of the house now. The responsibility all rested on his shoulders.

"Lexie, there's more to tell you," he said and she wiped her tears on her sleeve to look at him. "It turned out that dad hadn't been paying his Visa and I don't have one. So we're technically living here illegally... we're being deported back to England."

"What?" she whispered in disbelief. This was just getting worse. No, she couldn't go back to England. This wasn't real. It was just a dream.

"I can't afford to keep this place. We're being deported in 2 days," he said.

"But we don't have a house back in London, or-or," she cried, unable to finish her sentence.

"I've sorted it. We're going to stay with Aunt Lizzie for a while, until I get enough money for us to live alone. You're going to have to get a job too, though," he said. "I can't afford it all myself."

"We can't leave Baltimore! We just can't! I have friends here, we've made a life here. And Alex... oh my god, Alex!" she shouted, tears streaming.

"I'm sorry," he whispered and she could tell that he was doing his best not to cry as well. "There's nothing I can do. We have a flight at 9am on Friday. We need to pack up all the stuff we can take with us."

"What about a funeral?" she asked.

He hesitated. "I don't know. I think Aunt Lizzie said she's going to arrange a memorial in London. There's no point having it here with just the two of us."

She nodded, not sure if she could speak anymore. How did her life fall apart so quickly? It seemed like years ago that she was on Warped Tour, having the time of her life. Now everything had changed and there was nothing she could do about it.

She silently got up and dragged her suitcase up to her room. She didn't even bother getting changed, she just collapsed on her bed and cried herself to sleep.

* * *

><p>Lexie was woke in the morning by her phone ringing. Looking at the screen, she saw it was Alex calling. She didn't answer. Instead, she switched her phone off.<p>

She spent the day helping pack up all the things that they needed to take with them back to England, ignoring Noah's attempts to coax her into conversation. She didn't want to talk. She knew it wasn't his fault, but she was getting sick of him trying to put a false positivity on everything.

By the end of the day, everything was packed and ready and they were silently eating some takeout they ordered in the living room. Noah opened his mouth multiple times, as if to try and talk to her, but thought better of it and continued eating in silence.

All day she was thinking about what she was going to do about Alex. It was going to break his heart, just as it was breaking hers. But she didn't think she could face telling him. He would fight for her and try and find a way for her to stay, but that wasn't possible. Her and Noah were classed as illegal immigrants, they weren't allowed to live there anymore. And even if Lexie found a place to stay, she couldn't leave Noah.

So in her head, she decided what she was going to do. Before she went to bed, she turned her phone back on. She had a lot of missed calls, the majority being from Alex.

She scrolled through her contacts until she found the name she wanted and pressed call, anxiously waiting for them to answer.

"Hello?" sounded the voice.

"Jack? It's Lexie," she said.

"Lexie?" he all but shouted. "Are you alright? Are-"

"Jack be quiet!" she said urgently. "Are you alone?"

"Uh, yeah. It's just me on the bus, everyone's gone out somewhere," he said. "Do you want me to find Alex so you can talk to him?"

"No, I wanted to talk to you," she said. She didn't think she could face having to talk to Alex. Not now.

"Oh," he said, surprised. "What's happened? Everyone's been so worried."

She hesitated, not wanting to say it. Saying it out loud made it more real to her.

"Lexie? Are you there?" he said.

"Oh, yeah. Sorry," she said, then took a deep breath. "It's my dad. He's dead."

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry. How-" he started to say.

"That's not all," she cut in. "My dad hadn't been paying his Visa and Noah doesn't have one. We're being deported back to England."

There was a long silence. "Are you serious?" he whispered.

"Yes," she said, trying to hold back her tears. "We go back tomorow."

"Well why haven't you rang Alex to tell him this?"

"I couldn't do it. It would be too hard saying goodbye to him for good," she said, tears now rolling down her cheeks.

"I get it," he said quietly. "Isn't there anything you can do?"

"No," she said. "We're living here illegally. We have no choice. I'm going back."

"I don't know what to say... I'm going to miss you, Lexie."

She started sobbing, "I'll miss you too, Jack. All of you."

"Well we can still keep in contact. You have your cell-" he started to say.

"No, it's going to be too hard talking to you guys everyday knowing that I won't actually see you again. It's best if we don't stay in contact," she said quietly.

"But, Lexie, you can't just-"

"I've made my decision. It's easier this way," she said.

"Is there nothing I can say to make you change your mind?" he asked.

"Nothing," she said quietly. "Tell everybody I'm sorry. Tell them all that I love them."

"I will," he said and she could hear the sadness in his voice, which only made her start crying more. "You know, if I was with you right now, I would give you a big hug."

She laughed, despite herself. "Thanks, Jack."

There was a long pause, then, "What about Alex? This is going to crush him."

She took a deep breath, trying to regain her composure. "Tell him that I love him and that I'm sorry."

"Why don't you just talk to him?" he asked.

"Because it will be too damn hard to say goodbye to him. I can't do it. It's best for both of us if I just... disappear."

"Lexie, he's going to try and find you, he's going to-" he started to say.

"I know," she said, cutting him off. "So I'm asking you if you'll make sure he doesn't. We can't be together if we're living on separate continents. It just won't work."

He sighed, "Fine. But I think you're making a mistake. You could at least call him-"

"No!" she said quickly. "I've told you, Jack, I can't handly speaking to him."

There was a pause. "You don't want to talk to him at all?"

"No," she said quietly, blinking back more of her tears.

"Well then I best go because I think him and Rian are back," he told her.

"Oh my god," she said. "Okay. I'm sorry to leave things this way. Tell Alex I love him, more than anything. I'm sorry."

"I get it," he said sighing. "I'll miss you, Lexie. I really hope we see each other again."

"So do I," she breathed.

"I really have to go now, I can hear them coming in," he said quickly.

"Bye, Jack," she said quietly and hung up. Then she switched off her phone. For good. She would get a new one with a new number in England.

Suddenly everything seemed to sink in. She had lost everything. The only thing she had was her brother. She pulled her knees up to her chest and started crying silently. She wasn't aware that anyone else was in the room until she felt a weight on her bed.

Then she felt Noah wrap his arms around her shoulders, pulling her into a hug. She started crying louder and he stroked her hair gently.

"I heard you on the phone to Jack," he said quietly. "I'm sorry you had to do that."

"It was the only way," she said.

They said nothing else, but he held her until she fell asleep, letting her cry into his chest. They only had each other.

* * *

><p>The next morning, Lexie got up and ready somberly, trying not to dwell on any thoughts for too long. She was tempted to switch her phone back on to see if Alex had called, but she didn't. She knew that if she saw his name on the screen, then she would have to call him. She couldn't speak to him now, it would only hurt more.<p>

Lexie and Noah got their cases in the car and with one last wistful look at their Baltimore house, drove to the airport, where they checked in their things and boarded the plane.

They left. Lexie watched out of the window as the state got smaller and smaller, until all she could see for miles was the clouds and the sky. She layed her head against the window, headphones in and thought about her life. Everything had changed. Too many times. This was the most unwanted change of all. But there was nothing she could do about it.

* * *

><p><strong>There you go. The end of Forget About It. I've had this ending planned out ever since I began writing it, and I like to think it was a bit of a shock. Yes? No?<strong>

**I'm asking for the last time for reviews for this story. I would like to know what you thought of this chapter, the story overall and what you think might happen in the sequel. Yes, there is a sequel. I've written the Prologue to it and I'm about a quarter of the way through the first chapter. I'll try get it posted on Sunday, but if I don't, it will be either Tuesday or Wednesday. You'll have to subscribe to Author Alert so you know when it's up.**

**Thank you to all my readers and reviewers. I love you all and I hope you enjoyed this story as much as I enjoyed writing it.**


End file.
